The Loads We Bear
by XIIIth Hazard
Summary: (Part: 7) – New York is a very different place from the one they left behind and just because the Turtles are back on home turf doesn't mean they have the advantage. New dangers lurk around every corner and new enemies make their goals seem nearly unreachable. (Sequel: to 'The Trails We Face.')
1. Prologue

Welcome to Part 7

X)

* * *

 _The Loads We Bear_

Prologue:

( _Donnie's POV_ )

I had to admit living under a glowing orange dome was – _interesting_ to say the least. The twilight colored light kept the plants inside from growing so large that they couldn't be controlled and it seemed to have a calming effect on the people as well, for most were very friendly and even talkative.

It was kind of _weird_

People weren't usually concerned about striking up random conversation these days unless it pertained to emergences, food/water or their survival. But the citizens of New Manhattan were well equipped to deal with such things which left them to actually _live_ a little in their free time.

It was probably about as close as we would ever get to seeing the world like it had been before the outbreak. But for us it was just another strange new experience.

One we'd have to experience _later_

"Anything?" Leo's voice asked from my gauntlet.

"We're almost there." I told him as I looked down at the address again that was supposed to be where April and Casey had disappeared from. "What about you?" I asked knowing that he and Mikey were out trying to track down the woman Bishop had asked them to find.

"Nothing yet." He announced before I could hear Mikey call to him from a distance. "Stand by." He added and I lowered my arm as the line was ended and looked around to find Raph dropping down beside me again.

"Well?"

"He's working on it." I told him simply.

"Hey boys!" Zira suddenly called and we looked over to find her perched on another rooftop above us where she was currently watching something with interest. "Come look at this."

"Why did we have ta bring her again?" Raph demanded as we started toward the female alien.

"Because I'm not sure what will happen if we're too far away from each other." I informed him truthfully as I raised my right hand in emphasis. Though I had now covered the mark with a wrap he still knew I was speaking about the soul chain.

"Right." He stated sourly before reaching out to stop me from jumping up to join Zira and I turned to look at him as he thought over his next words. "Ya would – _tell us_ if it was – _hurtin'_ ya – right?"

I gave him a stern look in response which had him immediately backing up his accusation. "Don't look at me like that, they say that a _doctor_ is his own worst patient and I'm _not_ gonna let ya _hide_ somethin' like that."

I couldn't help but smile a little at his concern and finally nodded. "Nothing's wrong Raph, the old one hurt like hell but Algernon seemed to have fixed it." I stated truthfully and added just for the sake of his sanity. "I'm _fine_ , I promise."

"Okay." He finally agreed as Zira called for us again but he just waved her off. "But ya better let me know if anythin' _does_ happen." He ordered sternly and I laughed before nodding once again and jumped up to the rooftop above us where I found Zira crouched near something on the edge.

"What is it Zira?" I asked as I walked over to kneel down as well only to find a really _big_ scratch mark on the wall in front of me. I had to run my hand over it just to make sure it was _real_.

"It's _fresh_ too." She stated curiously and I looked at her again.

"How can you tell?"

"I'm a _predator_." She explained simply. "I can _see_ heat signatures."

"That's – helpful." Raph admitted solemnly.

"Where I come from; _food_ is classified as something you eat that doesn't eat you _first_." She continued informatively. "It _pays_ to have some decent _tracking_ skills in your arsenal."

"So – can you tell _what_ made these?" I asked her; pointing at the claw marks again but she just shrugged.

"I'm not familiar with this planet's biodiversity." She said simply and I sighed before asking another question.

"Can you _track_ it?"

" _That_ I can do." She admitted as she got to her feet to look around.

"Okay I admit it." Raph moaned as she led the way down to another building when she zeroed in on something. "She _might_ be a _little bit_ useful." He confessed sourly and I smiled before pushing him ahead of me as we followed her.

…

It took another hour for her to finally pin-point the source of the claw marks which gave me enough time to call up Leo again and let him know that we had found something interesting and were following the trail.

However what we ended up finding at the end of said trail was the same thing we were originally looking for. As we ended up arriving in an area of ritzy apartment complexes where an entire _wall_ was missing from the highest level of one home; that just so happened to be _April's_.

"Gees!" Raph proclaimed in shock as we looked around the destroyed living room. "What happened?"

"Something _angry_." Zira explained as she pointed out more claw marks all around the room.

"Okay lets –" I started to take command when two glowing orbs caught my attention. "RAPH!" I yelled just before a huge creature tore through a hole in the nearby wall with a roar but thankfully my brother had had enough of a warning to turn around and catch the thing in its charge, though not enough to _stop_ it.

Zira and I managed to dodge out-of-the-way as they slid across the floor and through another wall and I quickly followed after them as Raph finally managed to get a footing and threw the creature away.

"You okay?" I asked as I jumped through the hole with my staff out and he nodded while retrieving his own weapons and we stood facing the thing while it got back to its feet with a growl.

However before it could attack again a _laser_ suddenly hit it in the side; forcing it to focus on Zira as she continued to fire off rounds from her gun causing the thing to roar and charge her as well. But she just gracefully flipped over its back as she changed the setting on her weapon and fired again.

This time the creature actually reared back from the blast and fell through another wall causing the ceiling to collapse all around us. Though thankfully there wasn't another level above the apartment or we were going to have some serious explaining to do.

"Okay so maybe she's a little _more_ useful." Raph admitted as we rushed back in to help with the mess and attempted to find a way around so we could locate the thing again.

But just when we thought we'd found a way in I heard a strange _whistle_ from outside followed by a displeased growl from the creature before it busted through another wall to escape the building.

"Damn it!" Raph complained as we discovered that the mess was too thick for us to follow and so we quickly picked our way out of the rubble to the other side of the apartment where we could still get out and made our way up to the roof. However by the time we got there the thing and whoever was _calling_ it were already gone.

"Just when things were getting _interesting_ too." Zira sulked as she walked up as well and holstered her gun in annoyance before punching me in the shoulder.

"Ow! What?" I demanded sourly causing her to place her hands on her hips and look at me sternly.

"You never told me you had _cousins_." She complained seriously.

"What are ya talkin' about?" Raph asked turning back to look at her as well.

"You really didn't notice?" She proclaimed before waving a hand in the direction the thing had escaped toward. "That thing had a _shell_ – itwas a _turtle_."

* * *

Hope everyone has a good 25th

;)


	2. Chapter 1

I Don't Own Ninja Turtles

* * *

Chapter 1:

( _3_ _rd_ _:_ )

"Anything?" Leo asked his shell cell.

"We're almost there." Donnie reported. "What about you?"

"Nothing yet." He stated in annoyance as he looked down at the picture they were using as reference to locate the woman Bishop claimed would be able to help them find April and Casey and was about to say more when Mikey suddenly jumped onto a ledge above him and called his name; indicating that he had found something.

"Stand by." He told his phone before hanging up and went to see what his brother had discovered.

"Check this out." Mikey said as he pointed toward a spot on the rooftop and Leo knelt down to see what it was. But he didn't see things like Mikey did.

"Point me in the right direction here bro." He requested and his brother quietly drew a shape around the thing in question which looked to Leo like a footprint. "The guards use the rooftops too." He pointed out truthfully.

"Yeah." Mikey agreed as he motioned toward a few other areas. "I've seen their prints everywhere but this one's _different_ , it was so _light_ that I barely saw it. The guards aren't worried about leaving footprints, yet this person _was_." He explained seriously and Leo looked at him as he realized what that meant.

"Ninja?" He asked and Mikey nodded. "Can you track him?"

"Don't insult me Leo." Mikey proclaimed with a smile as he got to his feet and pointed in a seemingly random direction. "He went _that_ way."

…

"Correction –" Mikey stated a little while later as he crouched to check another print and Leo stopped to wait for him. " _She_." He finally finished.

"A female?" Leo proclaimed in slight distress.

"I'm pretty sure." Mikey perked up. "These prints are just too _small_ to be a male. That would also explain why she's so light."

"Yeah," Leo agreed sourly. A _kunoichi_ was always someone you liked having around for a female ninja could just _do_ things that males couldn't, but it was only a _good thing_ if she was on _your_ side.

"Okay let's –" He started again before Mikey suddenly reached out to pull him back by the ridge of his shell just in time to save his brother from having his face sheared off by a freaking _tessin_ as the fan spun through the air back toward its master who caught it in one hand as she perched on the top of a church spire like an angle of darkness.

"My uncannily, accurate search instincts are telling me – we're in the right place." Mikey proclaimed as if talking of the weather as Leo slowly unsheathed one of his swords.

"We're _not_ your enemy." Leo called to her but she didn't answer instead choosing to just continue staring at them. "We don't want to fight you; we just want to find our friends." He added sternly which granted him some slight movement this time as she turned to look at something and then, even though Leo continued to watch her like a hawk, she just – _vanished_ – right before his eyes.

"Mikey?" He asked slowly.

"Yeah I saw it too." His little brother announced and Leo nodded before leading the way over to the place where she had just been but was now nowhere to be found.

"Where did – AH!" Leo started to ask before his phone suddenly vibrated and thus scaring the shit out of _both_ _of them_ in process. After which Leo then causally looked at his brother as he picked up the device again only to find Mikey was obviously just as embarrassed about the action as he was.

"I won't tell anyone if _you_ won't." The younger turtle offered and the other nodded in agreement.

"Deal!" Leo spoke up as he answered the phone to find it was Donnie again.

"Leo we might have found something." The purple-clad turtle declared obviously running as he spoke. "We're following a trail, but judging from the _claw marks_ it could be something pretty _big_." He continued.

"Go ahead and check it out." Leo answered nervously, choosing not to tell him about the ninja so he didn't have _two_ things to worry about. "But be careful!" He added sternly and his brother agreed before hanging up again.

"Can you find her?" Leo asked as he returned the phone to his belt and looked down at Mikey who was checking the ground again for signs of their new – _friend_.

"Yeah." The orange-clad turtle announced as he ran a finger over a spot on the ground and sniffed the dust. "She didn't _vanish_." He added confidently as he started following something across the rooftops with his eyes and Leo nodded again, understanding that not only did they have a dangerous enemy ninja in their mists but that she could also make herself _invisible_.

That wasn't a good combination.

…

"We're getting close to the path Raph and Donnie were taking." Mikey announced some 20 minutes later after they were still following the trail left by their invisible ninja and Leo was about to respond when a loud _quake_ had a section of roof a few streets away collapsing into a plume of dust.

A minute later a large black form threw itself from the building to disappear into the city but Leo and Mikey didn't pay much attention to it as they rushed over to aid their brothers who they could sense were in the area.

Leo couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief when both of them plus Zira materialized on the rooftop a minute later unharmed. But as they neared the other team he heard Zira say something that stopped him in his tracks.

"That thing was a _turtle_."

"What?" They both demanded as Leo and Mikey shook themselves out of their daze and hopped over to land on the roof with them.

However Zira apparently hadn't expected them and suddenly whipped around with her gun in hand to respond to their presence causing Donnie to promptly reach out and point the barrel at the ground instead.

"Will you _relax_?" He demanded of her with a growl. "You're making me _nervous_."

"What happened?" Leo ordered as they walked up taking a peek down inside the building to see the whole thing had been pretty much demolished.

"There was –" Raph started to answer as he looked at Zira again questionably before turning back to his brother. " _Somethin'_ – waitin' for us." He finally settled on.

"It must have been _looking_ for something." Donnie added quickly. "We should try to find what it –" He started to suggest but was interrupted when Mikey suddenly called to them from within the hole and they quickly rushed over to see what he had found.

"Look at this!" He ordered and they descended into the wreckage to find him pulling a picture frame out of the rubble to show them. Taking it; Leo turned it around to find that the image inside was still intact and his eyes widened as he realized that the woman in the photo was the _same_ woman Bishop was trying to find.

"Oh no!" He said as he started looking around the destroyed apartment again.

"Wait a minute." Raph grumbled in confusion. "I though this was _April's_ apartment."

"If they were _friends_ she could be a target too." Donne answered sternly, but before they could make another move on this theory the sound of _sirens_ suddenly announced themselves as they closed in on the turtle's location who quickly reconvened on the roof to get the hell out of there before the feds showed up.

Lord knows they were already in _enough_ trouble.

…

"So where do we go from here?" Raph growled with folded arms as he watched the police search the apartment from atop a water tower.

"That looks like a good place." Mikey brought up and they all looked at him as he held up the picture they had found. In it was not only the woman but also a man and two young boys who looked to be the man's sons, however Mikey was pointing _behind_ them at a _building_ – one they didn't recognize of course.

"Yeah and _how_ are we supposed ta find this place?" Raph proclaimed sourly as he jumped back down to snatch the picture from his hand so he could have a look for himself. "We can't even find a Pizza Hut." He added sourly.

"You can see the dome in the background so it's gotta be inside the city." Mikey proclaimed thoughtfully. "But –" He added looking back at the picture. "I don't know how we'd find it."

"I can try cross-checking it with a map I have." Donnie offered, activating his gantlet again and started working his magic. "But I don't know how well it'll work though." He admitted distractedly.

"Ya did good Mikey." Raph told him as he laid his hand on his baby brother's shoulder when the little guy became kind of depressed.

"But I didn't _find_ it." He complained and his brothers were about to tell him that it was okay when Zira spoke up.

"I think you _can_ though." She said as she got to her feet and walked around to stand in front of him where she quietly removed the gold stone from her necklace and held it out for him to take.

"Hey!" Raph complained immediately pulling his little brother back so he couldn't touch it. "Don't even try it lady." He threatened.

"Will you relax, it _won't_ hurt him." She went on.

"Give me one good reason why I should _believe_ that?" He yelled causing her to raise the stone so he could look at it again and found that the thing was _glowing_.

"It wouldn't be doing that if it wasn't _compatible_ with him." She proclaimed sternly. "In fact it might just _boost_ his ability enough that he can _find_ this person."

"It could?" Mikey asked causing Raph to glare at him.

"Mikey yu're _not_ –" He started to command but his brother cut him off.

"Raph I want to _help_." He declared sternly.

"Damn it, Leo will ya _help me_ over here." Raph demanded sourly but said sibling just looked at Mikey and nodded understandingly after a short staring contest.

"If this is what you want to do I won't stop you." He said simply.

"WHAT?" Raph roared only to be shushed before he got them all discovered. "Leo ya can't be serious." He added quietly.

"I don't like it either but it's _his_ call Raph." Leo answered calmly. "If I stopped him and he came to _regret_ not making this decision I would _never_ forgive myself." With that he looked up to meet Raph's eyes and added. "Could you?"

The red-clad turtle promptly growled again as he seemingly came to some kind of decision before sighing loudly and walked over to stand out-of-the-way.

"Well Sunshine?" Zira asked gently, holding up the rock again in question.

"What's it supposed to do?"

"It'll help you _coordinate_ the energy in your body so you can focus more of it on the task, instead of it being so jumbled and unorganized." She explained kindly which left him to nod as he found himself understanding such a thing rather well.

"Will it hurt?" He asked after a minute as he eyed the stone nervously but she just grinned.

"No." She laughed simply before sitting on the ground and he followed. "About the most you'll feel is a slight _tickle_. But we won't know for sure until we try."

"Okay." He finally agree before reaching out to let her drop the thing in his hand which immediately began to glow again and he smiled a little as it warmed his palms.

"You okay?" She asked kindly and he nodded.

"It feels so – _natural_." He finally settled on in amazement and she smiled.

"It's no wonder you guys have so many health problems." She stated off topic. "You know you can't just pump Retalion into your body and expect it to _purify_ itself. It needs _help_."

These words _obviously_ had the turtles immediately looking at her in shock. "What do you know about Retalion?" Leo requested and she looked at him strangely before turning to Donnie sadly as she realized something.

"So _that's_ why he didn't know." She said under her breath before turning back to Leo and spoke up. "This didn't happen to you – _willingly_ – did it?"

"No." Leo answered simply and she sat up a little straighter.

"What – _color_ was it?" She added off topic.

"Black." Leo responded and she hissed in obvious distress. "Why?"

"They've made a few different types but _black_ is by far the most _dangerous_." She explained solemnly.

"Maybe you could try explaining this from the _beginning_?" Donnie requested as he knelt at her side.

"Retalion is actually a type of _energy_ ; it's made on _my_ planet." She started again. "Long ago it was _gently_ added into our water supply. It helped us to evolve faster, made us stronger, gave us our _abilities_."

"So you know a lot about this stuff?" Leo asked next and she nodded.

" _Gold_ is its normal color, and these are used to help us _organize_ the Retalion so it doesn't harm us." She said indicating the stone in Mikey's hand again. "But _black_ isn't natural." She added sternly.

"What do you mean?" Donnie stated quietly.

"It was made by – by _the Barron_." She answered obviously still uncomfortable talking about him, and for good reason. "He wanted a way to make his solders stronger, he usually – _perfected_ _it_ – on the population of a planet he was in the process of conquering. But I didn't think _anyone_ had ever survived."

"We knew we were the _first_ , but – you're actually saying that this has made its way through _planets_ of people?" Donnie asked in slight shock and she nodded once again.

"How long ago did this happen to you?" She requested kindly.

"Little over 12 years."

"Wow." She exclaimed in astonishment.

"Why?" Leo asked next.

"It's not uncommon for a – _volunteer_ to survive for maybe a month or so, but usually their bodies will _literally_ break down shortly after." She explained mutely. "I had the displeasure of catching up with one – right when he reached his limit." She went on distractedly as she shivered in remembrance of the incident. "Let's just say it's hard to cash in a bounty on a guy who's _exploded_."

"Okay enough said." Leo commanded sternly.

"But you guys are different." She continued as she watched the stone in Mikey's hand closely. "Normally people under the influence of Dark Retalion are power hungry, violent and quite frankly – _insane_."

"Jordan said they specifically _designed us_ to handle it." Donnie spoke up suddenly and she nodded.

"Your bodies must have been built to _single out_ the components that it could handle and modify the rest into something _similar_. But it's not a perfect science – like I said, the body needs _help_."

"And how would one do that?" Leo asked curiously as she returned to watching Mikey again until she seemed satisfied with his progress and removed the stone from his hand to show the other three.

"This is a form of _crystallized_ Retalion energy." She explained simply. "Because it's already been purified in the core of my _planet_ ; it can _aid_ in the purification of other energy _like_ it."

"That makes sense." Donnie admitted and Leo nodded in agreement as well before speaking up again.

"Would you be willing to let Mikey hold that for a while?" He finally asked causing said turtle to look at him in shock.

"I don't want it if it's not going to help _you too_." He insisted in a small voice.

"Mike." Leo started to complain but the smaller turtle promptly put his foot down.

"NO!"

"It won't work if he's not willing to accept it." Zira put in when Leo attempted to change his mind again and Mikey promptly folded his arms and nodded as if to say 'yeah, what she said.'

"But –" Zira continued before she lost them and quietly touched her finger to the center of the stone in her hand which seemed to cause it to glow a little brighter before suddenly falling apart into four smaller pieces leaving the turtles to stare at it in shock.

"I told you, its _energy_." She explained again with a laugh as she handed one back to Mikey. "It's _easily_ modified into other forms." She added before giving one to Leo and Raph as well.

"What about Donnie?" Mikey asked causing her to raise an eyebrow at him.

"He's already _got_ one."

"What?" Donatello proclaimed in shock before remembering something and quietly pulled out the little gold stone that Algernon had used to teleport him and Zira back to Earth. "I forgot about this." He admitted taking notice of the fact that the thing was _glowing_ warmly. "But are you sure it's okay for me to _keep it_?"

"My father left it to _you_." She muttered sourly; clearly still a little mad at said individual. "But if I were you I wouldn't be in too big of a hurry to _use_ it, I have no idea what _else_ he's put in it."

Donnie was about to ask her what she meant by that when Raph interrupted. "Okay what's yur deal?" He suddenly put in causing her to raise an eyebrow at him in question. "It can't just be a _coincidence_ that ya happen ta be so _knowledgeable_ about this stuff."

"I admit I find that a little weird myself." Leo pointed out as he closed his fingers around the stone in his hand and she shrugged dismissively as she answered.

"Maybe it's _fate_." She suggested. "Or maybe my father had his hand on more _stings_ then I first realized." She added more to herself, but the turtles didn't miss it.

"How would your father have anything to do with this?" Donnie asked finally causing her to look at him questionably.

"He didn't tell you?"

"Tell me _what_?" He demanded sourly, lord he was getting sick of people asking him _that_. Why couldn't anyone just give him all the information in the first place?

"He told you about how Algon's are _mentally_ strong?" She responded with a laugh pointing at her head and he nodded. "Well _his_ strength lies in seeing the _future_." She finally explained causing the turtle to start slightly as he found that actually made a lot of sense considering what he'd experienced from the man.

"Anyway." She continued again; leaving Donnie to think that over as she looked back at Mikey. "Feel like testing out your abilities?" She added quietly holding up the picture for him to see again, leaving him to flex his hand experimentally before studying the thing for a moment as he causally reached out to touch the building in the photo with the end of his finger, but nothing seemed to happen.

However just as he was about to give up again his eyes suddenly widened in recognition and he bolted to his feet where he zeroed in on a direction and immediately started running.

…

"Mikey what's goin' on?" Raph demanded for the 26th time but his little brother just answered with the same –

"Hurry up! I don't wanna _lose_ it."

"Lose what, what is he seeing?" Donnie asked of Zira as she kept up with them.

"I don't know; it's different for everyone." She admitted. "But their first time is usually a little confusing. It'll take him a minute to get use to it. So until then we just have to _keep up_."

"Ya never said anythin' about this when ya _gave_ him that thing." Raph complained and she turned to give him a sour look in exchange.

"I didn't know _how_ it would help him, just that it _would_." She proclaimed in announce. "Everyone is _different_."

"So ya decided ta _experiment_ on him?" He growled as he suddenly stopped in his tracks to turn around and get in her face. "That's –" He started again before being interrupted.

"There!" Mikey called and they all looked around to find him pointing at something on the ground.

"That's enough Raph." Leo ordered as he went to join the orange-clad ninja on the roof but of course Raphael just turned back to glare at the person of his anger until Donnie walked up to take him by the arm and physically steer him around, before pushing him in the direction of their other two brothers.

When they finally got to see what Mikey had found they were all generally amazed to discover that it was the exact same building from the picture and not only that but the woman they had been looking for was currently running down the street toward it and had even stopped to ring the doorbell.

"Great job Mike." Leo told him with a smile causing the little turtle to beam like the sun. "Now let's get to her before something _else_ does." He added sternly and took a quick look around the area before dropping down to street-level with everyone in tow.

They tried to not seem threatening as they walked toward the woman but she still gasped when she saw them and backed up a step.

"It's okay ma'am." Leo said kindly as he stopped to give her a little bow. "We're not going to hurt you."

"What do you want?" She demanded in a voice that clearly showed she was trying to be strong even though she was obviously scared out of her wits.

"We need your help." Leo continued softly. "Are you _Irma_ _Langinstein_?"

* * *

Happy New Year XD


	3. Chapter 2

Don't Own

* * *

Chapter 2:

( _Donnie's POV_ )

"Are you _Irma_ _Langinstein_?" Leo asked kindly, causing the woman to back up a step.

"No!" She answered sternly but that wasn't really surprising. She'd been using a different name in an attempt to remain undetected, it was part of the reason we'd had such a hard time finding her.

"Fair enough." Leo stated calmly as he took a causal step toward her. "Do you know April O'Neil or Casey Jones?" He asked which caused her to look up in horror.

"April?" She repeated in shock.

"They're _our_ friends too." Leo continued as he took another step. "But they're _missing_. We don't know why, but we know it was _Shredder_ who took them."

"Is this a _threat_? 'Cause –" She started again but he quickly cut her off.

"No, it isn't a threat." He corrected seriously. "We've already been to her apartment, something was waiting there for them and we have reason to believe that it may come back."

She suddenly became very concerned when he said this and looked back at the door she was waiting at before backing away from it like she feared the people behind it were now in danger because of her.

"I don't know who these people are to you –" Leo continued cautiously as he held up the picture of her, the man and the two children and she gasped. "But Shredder is not above using _others_ to get what he wants. Please, we can protect you – we don't want anyone else to get hurt."

She was about to respond to that when something behind us caught her attention and Raph spun around with all the grace of a swarm of bees to asses the threat but thankfully I managed to grab his wrist before he attacked, as we all quickly discovered that it was only a _child_.

But unfortunately for Raph the interruption didn't go well for him as the little guy hauled off and punched him right in the nose.

" _Oww_!" My brother screamed in discomfort as he rubbed the offended spot before glaring down at the kid. "What's the big idea?" He demanded but the kid just retaliated with another hit which landed yet again as I refused to let Raph try to stop him for fear that he might accidently hurt the little twerp.

"Ya little _brat_." Raph swore before the kid tried once again to sock him but it would seem that three times was the limit, for my brother quickly reached out to pick him up by the back of his shirt like a scolded puppy. "That's enough." He bellowed.

"Tyler." Another voice answered and we looked around to find another kid, this one a little older, running up to us in a furry to hold up his hands like he was ready for a fight. "Put him down!" He ordered fearlessly.

"Oh for cryin' out loud – _OWWW_." Raph complained yet again when the kid he was holding managed to deck him in the nose one last time. "Ya rotten little son-of-a –" He started to swear as Tyler wiggled out of his grip to hide behind his older brother leaving me to quickly cover Raph's mouth before he could finish his statement.

Deserved or not the little twerp was still just a kid, there was no reason to expose him to such language just yet.

"Don't worry." I told them both kindly. "He won't hurt you, _will_ _you_ Raph?" I added sternly as my brother folded his arms in a huff and glared at something on a nearby wall.

"I _hate_ kids." He grumbled under his breath but I ignored him.

"Tyler, Falcon." Irma yelled as she rounded us to make sure they were both okay which was when we finally managed to get a good enough look and found that they were in fact the two boys from the picture. "Are you okay, where's your father?" She demanded quietly.

"He's at work." The older brother; the one I presumed was Falcon answered as he continued to watch us out of the corner of his eye. "What's going on, who are they?" He asked but that was as far as the conversation went before a _blur_ caught our attention.

"Raph!" Leo ordered suddenly and my brother quickly jumped over the group of humans causing Irma to shriek as she shielded the two children with her own body in fear that he was attacking them, but he only landed soundlessly on the other side just in time to catch the creature he had tangled with before in another charge.

"Well look who it is." Raph proclaimed around a grin as the much larger turtle came into view after being invisible the whole time. "I'm ready for ya this time Hulk Jr." My brother added before putting all his weight into his next attack and forced the creature to back up several steps before readjusting and threw him into an alleyway.

"Alright." Raph proclaimed as he twirled his sai in preparation. "Let's dance."

"Donnie –" Leo started to command before suddenly being attacked as well, but he caught it on his sword as another much smaller enemy appeared out of nowhere. "Get them out of here." He finally finished before he attempted a counter but the female ninja just disappeared again.

"Mikey, Zira you're with me." I called and quickly rushed over to take Irma into my arms who screamed a little at the sudden movement while Mikey ran up to collect the older kid and Zira the took on the younger before I quickly led them all out of the area, leaving my two older brothers to fight off our attackers alone.

…

( _3rd:_ )

"What do you want?" Leo demanded sternly catching another of the female ninja's attacks as she attempted to slit his throat with her katana.

"Justice!" She suddenly answered which made him blink in shock given that none of them seemed interested in conversation up until that point; he was beginning to think they were all being controlled, but that didn't appear to be the case.

"We've done nothing to you." Leo countered truthfully.

" _Nothing_!" She repeated loudly before adjusting her attack to place her other hand against his plastron and a second later Leo was electrified to the point that he was flung back several feet into a nearby wall.

He quickly moved again to avoid a brick that had been dislodged in the crash and stood up again to face her. "What do you _think_ we did to you?" He demanded quietly but her only answer was to attack again.

Her anger made her dangerous and unpredictable so he didn't have much of a chance to talk to her again until a few minutes later when a loud sound caught their attention and suddenly Raph was thrown through not one but _two_ walls only to hit a light pole and collapse to the ground.

"Raph!" Leo called when his brother didn't get up, but he was quickly forced to parry another attack from the female as the hulking monstrosity that was her partner strolled toward his sibling.

"Raph, get up." Leo ordered as he held off another attempt to take off his head causing Raph to finally struggle to his hands and knees but he wasn't coherent enough to get out-of-the-way before the larger turtle picked him up by the throat in order to lift him straight off the ground.

Unable to get a good grip or enough leverage to force the creature to let go, all Raph could do was hang there as he waited for his breath to run out.

" _Ya-me_." The female ninja suddenly ordered as she forced Leo away, who quickly turned his weapons on the mutant that had his brother, but the thing just looked at her and growled. "Let him _go_ Slash." She commanded in a stern voice that promised death should he refuse.

For a horrifying moment Leo thought the turtle _wasn't_ going to listen to her and if it didn't he would have no way of taking the creature on to save his brother. But then the thing let out a loud sigh and dropped Raph like a sack of potatoes before taking a step back allowing Leo to rush over so he could stand between them.

He could almost swear the behemoth was _smiling_ at him from under his helmet but the young leader held his ground; prepared to defend his brother if the thing decided to attack again and for a second he really thought he was _going_ to.

"Go!" The female ordered again causing the other to glare at her. But she continued to hold his gaze completely fearless. "I said – GO!" She yelled and he let out another growl before turning around to disappear from sight as he activated his invisibility thing again.

The other ninja then turned back to look at Leo who didn't move so much as an inch before she too vanished right in front of his eyes.

Even though he couldn't tell if she was really gone or not he could clearly hear the larger one storming away, so Leo took a chance and quickly knelt down next to his brother and checked for a pulse which had him sighing in relief when he found it.

"Raph?" He asked, gently shaking his form a bit and received a pained hiss in response. "Come on bro, we gotta get out a here." Leo added as he carefully maneuvered the other turtle's arm over his shoulder so he could lift him up.

"Where's Mike and Don?" Raph asked in an extremely quiet voice, obviously it hurt to speak too loudly.

"They went on _alone_." Leo told him as he looked back at the spot where the two enemy ninja had just disappeared, which happened to be the _same_ direction their brothers were headed the last time he'd seen them. "But it doesn't look like they'll be much longer."

* * *

R&R


	4. Chapter 3

Sorry for the delay

* * *

Chapter 3:

( _Donnie POV_ )

"This is not fun, this is not fun." Irma repeated over and over as she buried her face in my shoulder so she wouldn't have to see the ground flying by underneath us as we roof-hopped over the city.

"This is so _cool_." Tyler proclaimed from Zira's back obviously not agreeing with the woman and his brother looked to be enjoying himself as well, though he was still trying to stay serious after what had just happened.

"Falcon?" I asked him quickly as I moved to run next to Mikey so I cold talk to the kid. "Where's you're father?"

"He works for the _Savior System_." He informed me nervously.

"What's a Savior System?" I requested.

"Border patrol officers, they help people outside the city who want to get out of Hell's Kitchen." He explained solemnly and I groaned a little as that pretty much just blew my plan out of the water, as I couldn't very well take two children into a _warzone_.

"Do you have any other family here?" I asked quickly but the kid just shook his head and I sighed before nodding at Mikey and he quickly pulled out his phone to call August who was the only other person who might be able to protect them while we dealt with the more pressing problem at hand.

And speaking of which

I was suddenly forced to stop in my tracks as another _blur_ made itself known just in front of us and I quickly turned so that I could shield Irma as the new ninja's attack landed right in the center of my shell.

Thankfully the woman was unharmed as I roiled with the attack and dropped her softly to the ground before getting back up to face my opponent. But before I could even reach over my shoulder for a weapon the mutant appeared to have decided that walking was overrated and promptly _materialized_ right in front of me.

I was understandably shocked by this, but my training made it possible for me to still grapple with him as I struggled to keep him from reaching Irma.

"Donnie!" Mikey called as he headed back to help me, having left the two children with Zira. But before he could reach me the new creature was again able to take us by surprise by suddenly grabbing both my arms in one fluid motion and threw me right off the edge of the building.

I managed to grab a few clotheslines on my way down which slowed the decent enough that I was able to adjust for the drop and landed without harm but that didn't help to make up for the fact that I was now completely cut off from Mikey and on top of that I now had a mutant on may case who seemed to have been born without a _walking animation_.

"Donnie!" Mikey called again as I tried to find out what the hell was going around here, for said mutant was now standing at the other end of the alley, successfully blocking the only escape, and I had no idea how he'd gotten there.

"Get them to safety." I ordered sternly. "I'll be right behind you." I half expected my opponent to comment on that but he didn't seem as angry as his friend or as refined as the female which made me wonder if he was just here to keep me busy.

"I don't want to fight." I told him seriously when he continued to just stand there waiting for me to make the next move. "Please, we're not your enemy." The only answer I got was for him to tilt his head a little as if studying me, but I couldn't really tell what he was thinking though that helmet of his.

Looking around a little more in an attempt to get a feel for my surroundings I realized that I had been dropped into an alley with no windows and very few hand holds. It would be difficult if not impossible for me to climb my way out, so I had to get _past_ him.

But that plan didn't last much longer as I looked up again to find a large shadow coming from the only entrance and realized it was the larger, more violent turtle that Raph had been tangling with.

This immediately made me search for my brother's presence trying to find out if he was hurt, but he seemed to be too dazed to feel his own pain at the moment.

From what I had already seen of this larger mutant he thrived on violence and cruelty and thoroughly enjoyed causing pain and death with his bare hands. We would really have to watch out for this one and I was certainly going to suggest to Leo that a _buddy system_ be implied for the powerhouse in the future.

If I _lived_ that long, that is.

"Well looky what I found." The big guy stated with an obvious grin as he stomped over, roughly pushing the smaller ninja out-of-his-way in the process. "I wonder if it'll take as long to break _this_ toy." He added cruelly as a way to throw me off, but he didn't know that I could tell Raph was still alive and that the ploy didn't work.

However as he continued to zero in on me the other one reached out to place a hand on his shoulder and shook his head, however the warning wasn't met with too much agreement.

"Get off me!" The big one demanded sternly reaching out to knock the little guy into a wall and I winced, suddenly feeling rather sorry for him. I'd hate to have a teammate like that; lord knows Raph was bad enough.

After laughing proudly about his deed for a moment the big one had just turned back to me when the female ninja suddenly dropped down right in front of him and a second later delivered an upper leg sweep that would have made kick boxers cringe, thus sending the behemoth straight through a wall.

"Don't you _EVER_ touch him again!" She warned dangerously before walking over to check on the little one which made me do a double take. I had to admit I hadn't expected them to show that kind of loyalty toward each other.

Maybe they weren't all that bad after all.

I was still contemplating this thought when she suddenly turned to look at _me_ with a glare so hot I swear I could actually feel it. "Leave!" She ordered sternly and I was about to answer her when she repeated herself. "I said _LEAVE_!"

'Okay this one's scary.' I thought to myself as I quickly shimmied along the wall to escape the alley. However as I finally reached the street beyond I couldn't help but look back when her voice caught my attention again.

"It's alright _Tokka_!" She whispered so gently that I honestly thought she was a different person as I turned to find her carefully cradling the other ninja's face, much like a mother would her child.

…

"Donnie!" Mikey proclaimed loudly as I maneuvered in through the window and he threw himself around me in a big bear hug.

"It's good to see you too little brother." I told him with a smile as I attempted to rub his shell, but with him crushing my arms the only thing I could accomplish was a half-hearted pat on the back.

"Are you okay?" Leo demanded as I looked around to find everyone present and accounted for.

"You're asking that a lot lately." I told him with a grin and he gave me one back for the attempt at humor.

"I noticed." He admitted sourly before getting serious again and moved out-of-the-way so I could get to Raph who was laid out on the floor like one of those bear skin rugs.

"Oh hey DoooonniE." Raph stated goofily as I came into his line of sight and I quietly turned to give Leo a questionable look as I removed my medical bag.

"He got knocked for a real loop." He explained dryly. "Started acting like this on the way here." He added in a voice that told me not to ask.

But of course Mikey never did speak fluent 'Leo'.

"Why, what did he do?" The little twit demanded with a big grin causing my oldest brother to glare at him as I tuned them both out and started checking over my injured sibling for the problem.

"Hey!" Raph complained drunkenly as I shone a light into his eyes to find them slightly dilated.

"Sorry." I offered before checking his pulse and heart rate then looked up to find him smiling at me like I was made of chocolate or something. "Yes?" I asked slowly.

"I _love_ ya man." He declared and I raised an eye-ridge at him before responding.

"I – love you too Raph." I informed him strangely. What can I say, he never was the hearts and bunnies type, so for him to be this love-y was just plan – _weird._

"Okay buddy." I said after a few more tests. "I need you to sit up for me." I proclaimed as I carefully helped him to do so which only caused him to _hug_ me. "O – K" I stated in shock before looking to Leo for help, but he just waved his hands in such a fashion that told me he'd already been there and done that, and Mikey was no help at all, what with him roiling around on the floor in a fit of laughter as he was.

Thankfully August came to my rescue soon enough and helped to pry Raph's arm from around my neck so we could lean him against a wall for safe keeping.

"He'll have the mother of all headaches when he comes to, but he'll be fine." I informed the group as Mikey went about recording Raph with his shell-cell for blackmail purposes.

"Now someone fill me in." I ordered as I reached over without looking to stop Mikey from poking my patient.

After several minutes we had all conveyed what everyone had learned from the brief squabble with the new ninjas and I realized I wasn't the only that apparently thought that the female wasn't our average enemy.

"They must be under orders to capture Irma and leave us _alive_." I guessed as I folded my arms to lean against a wall in thought. "I can't decide if that means Shredder _knows_ who we are and is trying to capture us, or if it's just a coincidence."

Leo sighed loudly from his spot on the couch before looking up at the woman in question. "Irma." He started making her jump. "I understand that you want to stay hidden but if there's anything you can tell us."

"I honestly don't know anything." She insisted sternly. "That's the only reason he let me leave in the first place."

"Well you must know something or they wouldn't be coming after you." Zira perked up truthfully.

"I – I don't know what." Irma stated nervously.

"What about a location?" August asked getting her attention. "Do you have any idea where Shredder might have taken April or Casey?"

"The building where I worked was destroyed years ago." She answered and they quickly tried to think of some other question that might help which resulted in Leo about to do just that when Mikey piped up unexpectedly.

"I just remembered something." He proclaimed before looking at August in slight distress. "What about _Angel_?"

"She's fine." I answered instead, for the man and I had talked about just that subject over the phone when we had still been on Kale's ship.

"She was overseeing the reconstruction when all this started." August explained simply. "I told her to keep her head down for a while, but – needless to say she's still pretty worried."

"Reconstruction?" Mikey repeated before putting the pieces together, causing his eyes to widen with excitement. " _Seriously_?" He asked. "They're rebuilding the _old farmhouse_?" He put in which caused the other turtles to smile as well when August nodded in confirmation.

"Turns out Casey's got friends in some pretty high places." The man advised with a grin of his own. "I got a look at it not that long ago, I bet by the time it's done even _he_ won't be able to tell the difference."

"Well it's about time we got some _good news_." I quoted which left my brothers to nod in agreement. But it didn't last much longer before we realized that we still needed to find our friends and that Irma, who was our only lead, still seemed to be unable to answer any of our questions.

"I'm sorry." She put in after a several minutes as she looked at the floor sadly. "I wish I could be of more help."

"It's not your fault." Leo informed her kindly, before Zira suddenly leaned forward to stare at her sternly. "What?" He added sternly as the two women made eye contact.

"It's possible that she actually _does_ know, however she _thinks_ she doesn't." Zira finally answered after a minute.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Irma asked nervously as Zira continued to keep eye contact with her. "I wouldn't _lie_ to them." She defended seriously.

"This isn't about lying." Zira answered. "I think Shredder may have _brainwashed_ you. Rewrote your memories and exchanged them with new ones so you wouldn't remember."

"That's _impossible_!" Irma immediately debunked and we all looked at her again as she attempted to continue but suddenly seemed to rethink her words and just like that the understanding hit her like a train and she _knew_ Zira were right. "Oh god!" She proclaimed quietly as she covered her mouth and looked at the floor in distress.

"Can you bring out her real memories?" I asked as I walked over to kneel next to them and gently activated a pressure point in Irma's wrist that would help her stay calm during this obviously difficult time.

"Maybe." Zira answered and gently leaned forward a little more causing the other woman to suddenly become extremely focused on her. "What are your secrets?" She asked in a strange voice and I could tell that she was trying to _push_ the information out, but Irma just continued to stare at her with a lost expression leaving Zira to back up again and release her.

"Nothing?" Leo requested.

"Not quite." Zira corrected cattily as she turned to speak with him. "Do you know _anyone_ on this planet that doesn't have at least _one_ secrete?"

"No." Leo admitted simply.

"Exactly!" She countered with a raised finger before looking back at Irma. "She's been programmed to _never_ reveal her secretes, even under hypnosis."

"I can't figure out why Shredder would go to all this trouble when he could have just as easily gotten rid of her – no offence." August proclaimed and Irma smiled in agreement.

"He wouldn't have." Leo declared with some serious thought. "Unless – It's a _test_."

"He's right, Shredder could have been _testing_ this on her and had to see that the programming would hold even in a natural environment." I backed him up.

"Either that or she's a _sleeper agent_." Zira put in which made us all immediately nervous.

"We need to find out." Leo quickly cut in before anyone could panic. "Can you break down the programming?" He asked of Zira who looked back at him as she answered.

"You mean can I get in?" She rephrased and he nodded. "Yeah." She answered simply. "This isn't like the Barron's mind control, I can _free_ her. It's getting the _information_ that's going to be the problem."

"Why's that?" Leo requested calmly.

"Because I can only do _one_ thing at a time." She proclaimed seriously. "Either I free her mind and lose the information or I get the information and leave her a prisoner."

"Can't you –" He started to ask but she quickly shook her head.

"Her mind is already weak from the reprogramming, if I went in more than once it would _destroy_ her." She explained solemnly and he nodded before turning back to Irma.

However just when he was about to speak again the woman put in her own two cents. "Do it!" She ordered bravely. "I want to help April and Casey, and if this is the only way that I can then you do what you have to."

"No!" Tyler suddenly spoke up but his brother quickly steered him away as everyone turned to look at them. "No Falcon, she _can't_." He tried to argue again as the older of the two maneuvered him into a back room so he didn't have to watch.

"Are they?" Zira suddenly asked but Irma shook her head.

"Their father was once my bodyguard, we became very close over the years." She explained sadly. "Tyler never knew his mother so he – well." She finished with a little smile that quickly faded leaving Zira to watch her for a minute before standing up so fast that everyone jumped.

"I need to talk to you." She suddenly ordered grabbing both mine and Leo's hands and dragged us out into the hallway where she slammed the door after words so we'd have some privacy.

"I won't do it." She proclaimed sternly and folded her arms clearly putting her foot down on the subject and was not about to be swayed. "I don't care how much you like your friends, I will _not_ deprive a child of a mother." She added seriously and was about to go on when Leo interrupted.

"I would never _ask_ you to." He answered simply as he turned to look at the door leaving her in silenced shock for a moment. "We never knew _our_ mother either, so we know how _painful_ it can be." He added sadly.

"No, I don't care what she wants; we can always find another way to April and Casey. You should –" He started again before I raised my hand in question, causing him to raise an eye-ridge at me before nodded in indication that I had the floor.

"If I may." I started with a little smile. "I think I have an idea."

* * *

Doesn't he always…lol

R&R


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4:

( _Donnie's POV_ )

"You sure about this Donnie?" Mikey asked nervously as he watched me and Zira prepare.

"That's a good question." She admitted. "Do you even _know_ what you're doing?"

"I was able to drift into Splinter's mind when I was just a kid and he's since trained me to _hone_ it." I explained simply. "So _yes_ I do know what I'm doing."

"Okay." She stated in disbelief. "It's your funeral." She added under her breath and I glared at her before quietly reaching out to sooth Mikey and tell him that even if it _did_ go wrong it wasn't likely to hurt anyone.

"Just make sure no one moves our bodies." Zira proclaimed as she sat down on the other side of Irma who had since been put to sleep on the floor in-between us. "I really don't want to come back and find that I'm nothing but a disembodied spirit."

"Zira!" I ordered sternly. "Enough already!" I added causing her to look at Mikey who was sitting directly behind her looking more and more concerned with every word she said.

"Oh – don't worry Sunny, we'll be fine." She told him seriously but my brother didn't look all that convinced as I turned to Leo and nodded causing him to kneel down behind me so he could catch me should I fall.

The plan was for both me and Zira to enter Irma's mind at the same time and working together; I should be able to find the information while she freed the woman from Shredder's control.

It was a long shot but it was the only one we had.

So with that I took a deep breath and closed my eyes in order to focus on the presence of Irma in my mind and did what I did whenever I needed to gather information about something.

I _looked_ at it

…

I jumped a little as I opened my eyes to find that it had worked and that Zira was still sitting across from me and we looked around to find we were in a – _library_.

"Typical secretary." She said as we both got to our feet. "We can't be here too long, so let's get to work." She added and I agreed before moving toward the back of the room as she moved to the front.

If Irma's mind became too _full_ of information that wasn't her own it could shut down with us inside. So in order to protect her we had been forced to leave a lot of ourselves behind, we couldn't even remain connected to our bodies for fear of bringing something in from the outside that might cause a collapse.

But thankfully we both had a general idea of what we needed to find and what we needed to do, so it shouldn't take too long.

Hopefully

"Over here." Zira called and I quickly rushed over to see that she had found a door which was of course _locked_.

"No that's not it." I told her seriously and she looked at me in disbelief.

"And what makes you so sure?"

"Shredder may be a tyrant, but he's still a _ninja_." I explained simply as I turned to look around again. "He wouldn't hide it in a safe or a locked room. It would be somewhere in plan sight yet – _out_ _of_ _sight_."

"That made _loads_ of sense." She declared sarcastically but I ignored her as I found myself focused on the many books scattered about the tables that obviously indicated Irma's current important information, memories and hardships.

"This _is_ a library." I added absentmindedly before looking up at all the shelves of stored tomes. "It's in a _book_."

"Oh will that makes everything _so_ much easier." She complained sourly. "How in the hell are we supposed to find _one book_ in all this mess? That'll take us _years_."

"No it won't." I answered calmly continuing my search of the area. "We just need to find the S's and from there 'Shredder' just like any other search." I stated truthfully before finally spotting said section.

"Over there." I called leaving us to carefully nit-pick our way through the books on the floor knowing that if we damaged one it would be the same as damaging one of Irma's memories. "No claws." I told Zira sternly as we reached the self and started to climb up the self.

"No kidding." She proclaimed dryly and we promptly spent some time reading titles and gradually moving around in an attempt to find the one we wanted through the process of alphabetization.

"Here." I finally said after several minutes before jumping down to land on the balls of my feet to better cushion the drop and protect the book from harm and Zira promptly joined me a minute later as we looked at the cover to find the simple title of _Shredder_.

"You sure it's the right one?" She asked looking back up at the shelve nervously.

"She used to _work_ for Shredder." I started seriously. "There _should_ be a lot more but there isn't, which tells me that everything has been _squished_ into this one."

"Makes sense." She agreed as I made to open it. "You sure you'll be okay?" She suddenly asked and I looked at her. "You know he's going to have some nasty defense in there."

"I know." I admitted. "But I'm hoping that by forcing them to focus on _me_ they'll leave you alone."

"And I appreciate that – but –" She started again and I realized that even though she was trying hard not to show it; she was truly concerned for me.

"I'll be fine." I told her with a smile and she nodded which was my Q to open the book and delve deeper into Irma's mind.

…

"No!" I couldn't help but say quietly as I looked around the room trying to find something to disprove what I was seeing. "No, no, no, no." He continued to repeat as I gripped my head and knelt on the ground in an attempt to calm down.

"Not this, _anything_ but this." I begged but the room wouldn't go away and the sight remained even when I closed my eyes.

The _dark_ _room_ , the one from my childhood where everything had started.

'It's not real, it's not real.' I thought over and over in my head in an attempt to get control again but the fear seemed to _paralyze_ me and seeing as I had forfeited all of my strength and training to enter Irma's mind I didn't have the power to fight it off.

But even though my panicked state my head still wiped up in response to the sound of someone whimpering and I quickly looked around for the source. "Zira?" I asked the darkness just before I saw him.

My little brother, the one left behind.

He was curled up in a ball and covered in blood just like the last time I had seen him and for a moment I panicked until I remembered that _this time_ I could _help_ him. But as fate would have it when I was mere moments from being able to touch him again – he _vanished_.

"No!" I called in a panic looking around to find in an attempt to relocate him, but all I could see was more darkness and all I could hear was his crying as it slowly grew softer and softer just as it had done before and I already _knew_ what came _next_.

"Tell me where you are!" I begged of the darkness but no replay came just more crying. "Please!" I asked as I continued to feel around on the ground for his form and when I finally found him again I almost smiled until I realized something was missing.

The crying had stopped.

"No!" I said again quickly turning him around to find a pulse. "No, please no." I continued to beg, but again before I could move to help, to try and bring him back, he vanished again only to be replaced by more _crying_ somewhere else in the room and that's when I realized – I was in a _loop_.

I would continue to hear him die, to watch him suffer, but I would never be able to reach him, I would never be able to help.

…

I don't know how long I was there but soon I found myself buried deep in a corner as far away as I could get from the voice I knew wasn't real but still it rang in my ears even though I tried to block it out and still I continued to see him even though I closed my eyes.

I tried to get out, to find what I had come for, to find Zira and make sure she was okay, but I couldn't. The darkness crushed me under its weight and the guilt consumed my mind, nether of which allowing me enough room to focus.

I was trapped

"Donatello!" I voice suddenly said and I jumped in an attempt to shun away from it, but a hand gently touched my shoulder causing me to look up and see who it was.

"Father?" I asked in a quiet voice in pure disbelief that he was there to save me from this pain yet again.

"You must continue your mission my son." He offered as he held out his hand to me. "I am with you." He added as I reached out put my hand in his without any hesitation, and just like that the dark room was gone.

…

The change happened so fast that I almost fell off my feet and I quickly looked around to find that I was back in the library again. My breath was heavy and my heart was threatening to beat right out of my chest but I could still feel the lingering feeling of my father's comforting touch on my shoulder, even though he was no longer there.

I don't know how long I had been trapped in the nightmare but it worried me. Time passed by differently inside a mind; for every minute here an _hour_ or longer could go by in the real world and we had probed even _deeper_ just now, which meant that the time flux had been even larger.

I knew the longer we stayed there the more we risked becoming _stranded_. I had to find what I came for.

I nearly jumped out of my skin when I heard another whimper and looked around in a panic expecting to find my lost brother again but instead it was Zira. She was lying on the floor in a ball trying to escape something I couldn't see and I realized immediately that she was trapped in a nightmare as I had been.

I quickly knelt down to lay my hand on her shoulder and closed my eyes again to focus on her mind, trying to help bring her out of it which was how I suddenly found myself standing on a – _battlefield_.

Bodies of Algons and other clans like Zira's were scattered everywhere. Men, women and children alike, but there were no screams of pain or fear, the fires had burnt out long ago and all that truly seemed to remain was the silence.

"I'm sorry." A voice suddenly spoke up and I looked around to find Zira curled up on the ground nearby and I quickly went to her. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry." She continued to repeat with tears flowing down her face as I reached her and realized that the fear she was experiencing was much like my own.

Pain of loss and the knowledge that no matter how much she may have wanted it to be different she couldn't change her past.

"Zira!" I said kindly as I touched her shoulder causing her to shun away from me but I moved with her and quietly helped her out of her fetal position. "Zira it's okay, it's _me_." I told her gently pulling her into my arms so she wouldn't have to see it anymore. "It's not real."

"Donnie?" She asked suddenly and I looked down as she turned to face me which caused our eyes to meet. This was something we had purposely avoided for we had been forced to leave all of our mental defenses behind and the _eyes_ were the gateway to _soul_.

I had always known that she put up a wall of sarcasm and selfishness but I never would have guessed it was to protect such a _fragile_ psyche.

She hadn't been there when it happened, she had heard that someone had attacked her clan and returned home as fast as she could – but she had been too late and all she had found were the bodies.

I couldn't even begin to imagine how painful that must have been, to believe for that one terrifying moment that she was all that was left, that she was truly alone.

It was no wonder she _broke_

It was clear from the crumbled building I was looking at; it was an image that made up the structure of her accomplishments, her strengths and her values yet all of it remained in ruins as the place could no longer stand on its own.

I don't know how long it lasted as normally when you dealt with the mind, _time_ was something that just never seemed to be in the equation. But when I jolted out of the soul sharing again I realized what it was that she so desperately needed.

A _pillar_

And as I looked up again I found Zira staring at me like she couldn't wrap her mind around something, I realized that she too had seen into the deepest darkest recesses of my soul.

I don't know what she saw down there as it wasn't a place I liked to visit, so I gave her another minute to adjust before speaking up again.

"It's okay." I was finally able to say while I helped her to her feet still keeping eye contact so she didn't have to see the wasteland that still spread out around us and carefully reached over to put my hand in her hers.

"I'm with you." I repeated calmly before forcing us both out of the horrid place to escape the memories that should have been buried long ago.

…

Just as suddenly as it had started the battlefield was gone and we were left standing in the library once again where she quickly threw her arms around my neck in an attempt to stay on her feet.

"It's okay, it's okay. I'm here." I told her gently holding her up, allowing her to focus on stopping the uncontrollable shaking of her body until finally she had collected herself again and backed up a step.

"What was that?" She asked quietly.

"Shredder's security guard." I explained simply as I looked down at the book which was now open on the ground showing us all its secrets as it no longer had anything to _defend_ them with. "He always did _thrive_ on cruelty." I added before looking back at her slowly. "But it's gone now."

"Yeah." She agreed as she looked around a little as if trying to find something. "I can't sense the programming anymore." She revealed before folding her arms around her defensively to stare at the book on the ground.

Even though neither of us wanted to touch the thing again we had to take it back with us, for not only did it have the information we needed but it held the _lock_ that would continue to keep Irma prisoner.

"I guess we didn't need to double team after all." Zira stated simply as I knelt down next to the thing again.

"No." I disagreed as I reached a hand out but hesitated to touch it. "Coming in together was probably the only thing that saved us, Shredder didn't _expect_ that."

"How did you break free?" She suddenly asked and I looked up at her, still not making contact with the book just yet.

"My father." I said simply before finally laying the palm of my hand on the page closest to me where I immediately felt Shredder's presence being _contained_ by the stronger, _softer_ essence of Splinter and I knew that meant my father had broken through the defenses.

Nothing would happen to us now, we were safe. However that didn't mean we could go in again, for it was only by Splinter's power that we could even be this close.

Zira didn't seem as sure about my confidence as I finally picked up the book and stood to face her again where she continued to watch me like she expected me to disappear any second.

"It's okay." I told her and carefully closed the thing in order to slide it under the belt over my plastron so that when my mind returned to my body the information inside would be transferred with me. "You ready to get out of here?" I asked as I reached back out to her gently.

"I've never been more ready for _anything_." She revealed putting her hand in mine causing us to immediately return to the real world.

…

 _Pain_ was not what I had expected upon returning to my body but it was what I got and I quietly cried out as I attempted to get up, realizing that I was lying on the floor _far_ from the place where I had begun my internal mission.

"Don't move Donnie, you're _hurt_." Leo insisted suddenly and I looked up to find him standing there with his swords out and ready to defend me.

"What happened?" I demanded looking around to realize that the living room had been destroyed and everyone but me, Leo and Zira were gone. But I ended up answering my own question when I looked around my brother and found that he was holding off the female ninja from before, which meant only one thing.

We'd been _attacked_ again.

* * *

For those who have wondered, my use of Q vs. Cue is actually just a preference. Kind of my way for making my stories more personal, but it means the same thing.

X)


	6. Chapter 5

Don't Own

* * *

Chapter 5:

( _3_ _rd_ _:_ )

Leo managed to catch his brother as he fell backwards, no longer possessing the mind power to keep his body upright, then proceeded to look up and find that Mikey had done the same with Zira.

"Are they okay?" The younger turtle asked with worry. None of them had ever seen Donnie go so far into another mind that he had to disconnect from his body altogether, so this was a bit unnerving.

Leo quickly moved his brother so he was leaning against his shoulder and checked for a pulse. Though it took a second as Donnie was deep in his trance he eventually located the heart beat and sighed.

"They're fine." He answered before looking up as Raph walked over in the process of rubbing his head in obvious discomfort.

"What'd I miss?" He requested sourly, his voice still very low as his throat continued to heal.

"Quite a bit bro." Mikey informed him sugarly earning a glare from the turtle in question before turning to Leo for an explanation only to receive a look that told him he would figure it out soon enough.

Deciding to let that go for the time being Raph promptly turned back to the annoying specimen of reptile that was his baby brother in order to threaten him with bloody retribution if he didn't reveal whatever _blackmail_ _material_ he had scored during the red-clan turtle's moment of – _lackluster_ – so that it could be maliciously destroyed.

However the conversation never transpired as the turtle's eye was immediately drawn to the window over Mikey's shoulder where there just happened to lurk a rather large _shadow_.

" _Down_!" He called and his brother's promptly did as he said, just in time for the large hulk of a turtle from before to burst through the window. "Not you _again_." Raph complained sourly as he got up with his sai in hand to take on the beast once more. "This is gettin' _old_."

The only response the monster had for him was to scoff loudly and pull a _huge_ morning-star weapon from his belt to swing it at Raph's head.

"Oh shit!" Raph swore as he ducked the thing causing it to take out a chair and part of the wall before getting up to catch the weapon on one of his sai when the creature reversed tactics and tried to crush him with a downward swing instead.

"Didn't yur mother ever teach ya not ta play with ninja weapons?" Raph joked as he flipped his other sai around and thrust the handle into the larger turtle's wrist causing the behemoth to cry out as the bone was jarred into dislocation.

The creature promptly glared at Raph though his helmet before reaching out to grab his arm with his good hand and whiplashed the smaller turtle into the floor. Thankfully the newest injury seemed to have cut the thing's strength in half, allowing Raph to counter as he dug in his feet, grabbed a hold of his opponent's arm instead and threw him back toward the window.

Unfortunately the hulking ninja managed to stop his momentum just enough to avoid falling back outside but only long enough to suddenly receive a _shotgun_ blast to the chest courtesy of August who promptly cocked his gun again as everyone scattered before firing off round after round into the larger turtle forcing him to back up several steps before finally falling out the window as had been intended.

"What the hell is going on in here?" The man demanded as the two kids came up behind him to stare at the carnage with eyes the size of pennies. Of course Raph didn't answer as he barreled toward the window to look down and find that the turtle had managed to catch himself on a windowsill barely a floor down.

However he barely had a second to register that the monster now looked royally ticked off before he was suddenly forced to duck as the female came flying at him though the hole where she maneuvered off his shell in a fancy move that sent her soaring over the crowd to land on the other side of the room which put her directly _behind_ Leo.

"August get those two out of here." The young leader ordered angrily as he caught her sword and held his ground before using his superior strength to force her back. "What do you _want_?" He growled in annoyance.

However the only answer he received was for the larger one, which he remembered the woman had called ' _Slash_ ', came bursting through the wall again to plow over Raph who quickly fell to the floor to avoid being crushed but unfortunately that only meant that the hulk now had a full view of Irma, Zira and Donnie.

"No!" Raph ordered but the creature didn't listen as he used his weapon to backlash his brother who was not conscious enough to defend himself and sent the turtle to the ground in a heap where Slash quickly raised the morning star again to crush him where he lay.

"Get away from him!" Raph screamed jumping onto the creature's back where he smashed his hand directly through the visor of the helmet to grab the face underneath and ripped back as hard as he could causing Slash to scream in pain as he attempted to dislodge him, but Raph held on in determination to steer the behemoth away from his family as he took the hits one after the other.

"Raph!" Mikey suddenly yelled in warning but the red-clad turtle only had enough time to look around before he realized they were headed right for the window again and quickly tired to jump, reaching for the sill in an attempt to avoid falling as well only for Slash to grab his leg at the last second.

Their combined weight was too much for the stone of the window frame to handle causing it to break apart under Raph's fingers as he fell to the ground several stories below.

Even though Slash tried to maneuver around so that he would be on the top when they hit, Raph's smaller size and speed won out in the end but that didn't mean the landing didn't take its toll.

His recently received knock upside the head had Raph collapsing to the ground in another daze but thankfully Slash was too out of it to attack either so he had a little time to recover before they both meandered to their feet again.

However Slash's attention was quickly taken from his opponent back up to the window where Mikey was jumping to a fire ramp on a nearby building with Irma safely on his back.

With his helmet being lost somewhere in the fight Raph could now clearly see Slash's face as he scowled with a focused stare at his brother. "Don't even think about it." The smaller of the two growled dangerously causing the other turtle to glare back at him. " _I'm_ your opponent." Raph added in a tone that actually had a small speck of _fear_ showing in Slash's eyes.

Attacking Donnie was one thing, one thing that would never be forgiven. But there was no way in hell Raph was letting this creature near his _baby_ brother.

…

"Mikey!" Leo proclaimed as his little brother attempted to help him fight off the ninja. "Get Irma out of here, take her somewhere safe." He commanded causing his sibling to look at him before nodding in agreement.

"But what about Donnie and Zira?" The smaller turtle requested as he moved back over to help Irma into a sitting position.

Leo knew there was no way Mikey could carry all three of them and he certainly didn't want to test that soul chain to find out his brother and Zira shouldn't be separated after all.

It wouldn't be easy but he'd be able to protect them both while still keeping the ninja busy.

"I can handle it." He finally announced as he caught another attack and quickly used the close encounter to flip her over his shell and into a room where she couldn't see which direction Mikey was escaping to.

His little brother was gone in less than a second and it took his opponent a few more to disentangle herself from the bedroom where she quickly rushed to the window.

"Oh no you don't." Leo ordered as he got in front of her. "What is it you want? _Why_ do you keep attacking us?" He demanded still not sure that all they were really after was _Irma_. If Shredder had been so concerned about her giving away information then he would have never let her go in the first place.

Something was not kosher here and he was going to find out what it was.

However her only response was to swing her sword at him again forcing him to catch the attack and parry before backing up a step as she bore down on him again. Unfortunately the charge caused him to lose his footing on all of the loose debris but he was able to use it to his advantage and pulled her down with him before kicking out at her stomach to throw her to the other side of the room allowing him to jump back to his feet.

But as she stood up again Leo immediately noticed something different and realized that she'd lost her helmet in the skirmish leaving him to discover that she too was a _turtle._

However as he took in this new development he quickly came to the conclusion that something was _off_. She didn't have the same _smells_ or the _connection_ that he would have normally felt when faced with another of his own kind, which caused him to realize that what he was seeing was not _real_.

It was thanks to this new understanding that he was able to break out of his shock in time to block her next attack when she tried to use the confusion to take him by surprise. Which not only _proved_ that she was just showing him what she wanted but also brought her close enough to learn that she was _not_ being controlled, that she was doing this of her own free will.

"But why?" He had to ask which immediately brought anger to her face.

"W _hy_?" She repeated in a growl as she forced him back a step. "After what you _did_ – you ask _WHY_?" She demanded loudly before throwing a kunai at his head which left a thin line of blood across Leo's right check as he pulled away.

Ignoring the little cut, he stood back at his full height to stare her down again, determined to get to the bottom of this. "Whatever it is that you _think_ we've done to you, I guarantee is just a _lie_ fed to you by Shredder."

"You can not _lie_ about _memories_." She proclaimed angrily. "And I remember _everything_."

" _Shredder_ can lie about _anything_." He insisted causing her to strike out with her sword in retaliation and he quickly backed up to put himself between her and Donnie again who still hadn't moved since being hit with Slash's weapon. Leo could only hope that meant he was still in his trance and not something _worse_.

"He was able to erase Irma's memories, what makes you think he couldn't do it to _you_ too?" He declared seriously causing her to retaliate again.

"You were _there_." She screamed demandingly. "I _saw_ you, you _killed_ them."

"What?" He attempted to ask but she ignored him as she continued with her rant.

"Whatcould the Hamatos possibly have _offered_ that you would destroy your own _clan_?" She continued in a rage. "Why would you _betray_ us?"

Leo honestly couldn't find any words to respond to that, for as far as he knew he had _never_ been apart of another clan but his father's and he had certainly never _betrayed_ anyone.

Apparently this confusion showed on his face as she suddenly lost a little of her anger to stare at him with slight curiosity as if trying to figure out if his emotions were true. "Has he been _controlling_ you?" She suddenly demanded which Leo could have sworn should have been _his_ question to ask.

"Of course not." He insisted sternly but she just went on as if he hadn't spoken.

"Shredder can help you." She offered seriously taking a step toward him but he quickly held up his sword to discourage any threat she might attempt to pose on him or his brother, causing her to stop in her tracks and stare at him for a second. "You don't have to live like this, our father can _free_ you."

This immediately made Leo tense up like a coiled spring.

" _Father_?" He repeated spitting the word out like a poison he had been forced to drink. " _Shredder_ is _NOT_ my _father_."

She seemed to be truly _sad_ to hear him say this but he couldn't figure out if it was just a trick that she had been trained to convey as a kunoichi or if she was genuinely concerned for him.

However he didn't get the chance to find out before their conversation was cut short when Donnie suddenly groaned and Leo quickly looked back out of the corner of his eye to find that his brother was trying to get up.

"Don't move Don." Leo ordered kindly. "You're _hurt_." He added as his sibling attempted to look around at the carnage, obviously very confused.

"What happened?" He demanded before spotting Leo's opponent and it became clear from the look in his eyes that he now fully understood what was going on.

"Don't move!" Leo commanded again when Donnie tried to get to his feet only to cry out in pain and fell back to the ground to clutch at his chest.

"What the hell –" Zira's voice quickly got his attention and he turned a little to see her pulling herself to her feet with a little help from the corner of the kitchen counter.

"Zira!" He said with a tone that demanded her attention. "Help him!" He added sternly as he continued to keep most of his attention on the female ninja who had caused all the trouble.

Thankfully Zira didn't appear to be hurt as she was able to gracefully make her way over to Donnie and quickly tried to see what she could do, but Leo didn't miss how the ninja in front of him continued to watch them with a sudden realization crossing her face as she figured out that they had _found_ the information Shredder wanted so desperately to recapture.

Even though her speed was far superior to his own; Leo still managed to catch her attack when she suddenly charged Donnie. Not pausing a moment she quickly tried to flip over his shoulder instead but he was not about to let her anywhere near his injured brother and grabbed her ankle to throw her back in the direction she had just come.

She caught herself on all fours and immediately attempted another attack but before Leo could counter this too; someone flipped over his back and suddenly Zira was bearing down on her with claws and teeth at the ready.

This obviously took the kunoichi off guard, giving Zira the opportunity to take her to the ground where it became clear that Zira's unconventional attack method was more than enough to throw the ninja completely off her game, to the point that Zira eventually got the upper hand and promptly showed her to the front door where she then threw the other female over the railing outside to find her way to the bottom of the staircase via a series of crashing noises.

"Shit!" Leo swore and quickly bolted to the railing to see where the kunoichi had gone, only to find that she'd disappeared again. Checking on Zira he found that she was still amped up on adrenalin which Leo decided to use to their advantage and quickly returned to help Donnie who was watching the place where the _supposed_ female turtle had vanished with a completely flabbergasted expression.

"When did everyone decide _turtles_ were the best solders?" Donnie asked in disbelief

"She's _not_ a turtle." He told him quickly as he pulled Donnie's arm over his shoulder.

"What?" He countered in confusion.

"I don't know _what_ she is." Leo started again as he maneuvered them over to the window intending to make an escape before the other ninja returned for another round. "But I get the feeling what we saw was either an _illusion_ or she can actually _change_ her appearance somehow."

"Well that's going to make things _difficult_." Donnie mumbled sourly causing Leo to smile, glad to know that he wasn't so injured that he couldn't be witty. However he lost that smile when he looked outside to find that Raph and Slash were _gone_ as well.

"Where's Mikey?" Donnie asked around his pain.

"He took Irma to the safe place." Leo explained distractedly. "Slash probably tried to follow him."

"They're gonna need help." Donnie insisted as he attempted to push away from his brother so he could stand on his own.

"Donnie you're in no condition to –" Leo started to argue before said turtle reached down to mess with his gantlet for a second then gently laid his left hand over his chest which started _glowing_ as some program was activated and a second later he was able to take a deep soothing breath clearly no longer in any pain.

"I'll be fine." He proclaimed and his brother blinked in slight surprise before attempting to comment but seemed to think better of it when Donnie gave him a stern look that threatened pain should Leo get in the way of him aiding his family.

"Okay." Leo finally relented as Zira walked up to them again. "Do you think you two can handle Slash?"

Donnie was about to answer when Zira beat him to it. "It would be my _pleasure_." She growled causing them to look at her in shock.

"When did you become so protective?" Donnie requested simply as she folded her arms in a huff.

"My clan too is one of _family_." She admitted sternly. "And no one hurts _my_ mate and lives to _brag_ about it." The boys just blinked in disbelief of this statement before Leo grinned smugly and turned back to his brother.

"Wow Donnie, aren't you _lucky_?" He joked earning a glare form the sibling in question.

"Shut up Leo!"

* * *

Lol… Sometimes I just love Leo.

Reviews Please

;)


	7. Chapter 6

Chapter 6:

( _Donnie's POV_ )

After Leo finally spilt off from our group to find Mikey, I had to stop for a few seconds to catch my breath. It still felt like I'd been hit with a wrecking ball and was willing to bet I had been attacked by the turtle they called _Slash_.

"Are you okay?" Zira asked as she laid a hand on my shoulder.

"Yeah." I answered breathlessly. The nano-bots in my system had already healed the damage so I wasn't in any danger but the _pain_ was still making my life miserable. However I realized that too was slowly becoming more bearable as I activated my gantlet again to instigate another healing, but unfortunately I didn't have the _time_ to let it complete the process just yet.

"We need to find Raph." I insisted after a second looking back down at the screen on my wrist again in an attempt to locate my brother's shell-cell. He was so full of rage and anger at the moment that I couldn't even sense where he was, which meant that he was likely still in full on battle-mode with Slash and if the behemoth had threatened _Mikey_ he would stop at _nothing_ to bring the beast down.

Even if it _killed_ him

"You know – I'm starting to understand _why_ you wanted to come back so bad." Zira suddenly admitted and I turned to look at her as she stared off into the distance. "Your brothers are probably some of the _best_ people I've ever met."

"Is that what you saw?" I had to ask knowing that she would understand that I was talking about our _soul gaze_ earlier.

"It was _part_ of it." She revealed with a smile as she turned to look at me again. "It's almost like they're – _a part_ of you." I nodded in agreement to that and was about to ask what _else_ she had seen in the recesses of my spirit when a wall exploded a few streets over.

"But honestly, what do you guys have against _walls_?" Zira asked sarcastically in response but I didn't answer as I bolted for the spot to find that this time it had thankfully been _Slash_ on the receiving end of the attack.

"Donnie!" Raph proclaimed in shock when he saw me. "Are ya –" He started to ask before he seemed to lose his balance and fell to one knee where he attempted to get some more air to his lungs.

I found myself at his side instantly where my concern and fear actually had me _shaking_ as I tried to find out where he was hurt.

"Raph, don't move!" I ordered when he attempted to get back to his feet and continue the fight. He was bruised and bloody and couldn't move his right arm; there was no way he'd _last_ through another round.

But thankfully it didn't appear that another round would be necessary as I looked up to find Zira had turned to face Slash herself while the creature meandered into a standing position again.

Thankfully the large turtle didn't look like he was in any better shape as he just continued to stand in the place where he had fallen, taking in one deep breath after another and even though I couldn't see much of his body through the suit, judging from the condition of his _face_ he wasn't going to get up again once Zira was through with him.

"Wait –" Raph started to complain as I tired to get him to safety, but he continued to fight me until he was interrupted by Zira.

"I've got this." She declared in a tone of voice that left no doubt in my mind that she could handle it and I quickly used my brother's shock to maneuver him off the edge of the building where he landed on another down below it.

"Donnie!" He argued again as I carefully threw his arm over my shoulder. "We can't just _run away_."

"We can and we _are_ Raph." I informed him sternly before forcing him to run across the rooftop in order to jump to the next one. I'd just been forced to watch my lost brother dying over and over before my eyes – I _refused_ to do it again.

…

"Damn it ta hell Donnie!" Raph screamed in agony as I dabbed at the many bruises and cuts on his body. "Ya use any more alcohol I'll need a designated _walker_."

"Well if you'd stop _moving_ it wouldn't _hurt_ so much." I informed him sourly, determined to check the injuries before they healed over. We'd had our share of problems in the past from our skin reforming around an _infected_ wound and the result had never been pretty.

"Well maybe if yu'd – OW!" He interrupted himself as I applied a generous amount of disinfectant to a rather nasty cut on his shoulder before turning to shuffle through my bag, leaving him to grumble miserably.

"Drink!" I ordered causing his to shun away from the little bottle I trust into his face before glaring at me evilly as he took the thing and pulled the top off with his teeth. However before he could take a drink movement alerted us to the fact that someone was at the window and we turned to find Zira crouched on the sill like a cat.

"You realize I could hear you about 3 blocks away right?" She proclaimed as she gracefully maneuvered herself onto the floor.

"Where's Slash?" Raph quickly demanded but I just reached out to push the bottle into his face again, reminding him that he should be drinking not talking.

"I had him on the ropes, but the chicken-shit threw a smoke bomb in my face and ran off." She grumbled sourly as she folded her arms to glare at a wall.

"Let me see." I ordered leaving Raph for a minute so the medicine could take affect and gently pointed a light into her eyes to insure that smoke had been _all_ that it was made of. "They're a little irritated." I announced as I returned to my bag and handed her a little bottle of eyewash.

"So how's the big baby?" She quailed before dropping some into her eyes.

"Ya know what; ya –" Raph began to complain as I forced him to sit down again so I could correct his arm.

"Hold still!" I ordered but he was determined to be difficult about it.

"Donnie, we need ta –" He started again when I looked up to glare at him.

"Don't make me knock you out." I threatened before promptly forcing his arm back into place causing him to scream in agony.

"Damn it!" He swore loudly as I quickly used the distraction to look over his hands as well and started popping his fingers back into their joins earning another yelp for every one.

"You're the one that won't take the pain medication, so you'll just have to live with what you _get_." I proclaimed truthfully before correcting his wrist as well which finally caused him to jump to his feet so he could waltz around the room in discomfort as he continued to curse me under his breath.

"I swear Donnie ya find _way_ too much pleasure in this." He informed me as I recollected the little bottle of medication he thought he'd managed to hide from my view before turning to glare at him again.

"What happened to your gloves?" I countered off topic causing him to start in shock before looking down at his hands which now featured a pair of tattered and damaged gloves which housed the circuitry for the _very_ difficult to produce surface adapters that I had been kind enough to make for him.

"What's the big deal?" He asked as if talking of the weather. "Ya can fix it right?"

"Fix it?" I repeated as I calmly got to my feet while continuing to look at the ruined things as I walked up to him. "Yeah – I can fix that." I agreed simply before pulling out my staff and started hitting him over the head without even lengthening the weapon.

"Ow! Donnie!" He complained loudly as I swung at him again. "Don – ow!" He proclaimed before I took aim one more time but he quickly caught the end of my weapon before it made contact. "That _hurts_!"

"I noticed." I told him smugly before twisting the end I had in my hand and a second later he had one of the hidden blades at his throat. "How many times have I told you," I growled cruelly as he backed up into the wall. "If you keep breaking your toys I'm _not_ gonna make you _new_ _ones_."

"Okay, okay." He muttered with a sheepish little grin though it was by no means my weapon that he was so afraid of.

"You know it's hard to tell if you two _love_ or _hate_ each other." Zira piped up where she sat watching us with a high level of amusement.

"It's a mystery isn't it?" I agreed sourly as Raph attempt to use the distraction to move the sword away from his face but I promptly moved it back.

"What's the big deal?" He grumbled darkly.

"The 'big deal' is that I _don't_ have the _suit_ anymore Raph." I informed him sternly. "I gave it to Bishop _remember_?" I added loudly getting up close and personal with my brother.

"Oh yeah." He remembered with a sheepish little grin.

"You gave it to _Bishop_?" Zira butt in disbelievingly. "Why?" She demanded and I slowly turned to glare at her again.

"Do you _mind_?" I proclaimed in announce. "I'm _trying_ to have an argument over here?"

"Sorry." She stated with a grin waving her question away before putting her chin in her hand as she continued to watch us. "Carry on."

With that I promptly turned back to Raph once more who quickly dropped his hand as he had been trying to push my blade away again.

"Okay, I'm sorry." He finally relented genuinely. "I _promise_ – if ya decide ta fix 'em – and I wouldn't blame ya if ya didn't –" He added quickly. "I will keep 'em safe."

That was probably the best I was going to get out of him so I sighed and finally removed my weapon from his face to sheath it again before returning the thing to my back and stormed over to one of the beds to meditate before I _murdered_ something.

"Don!" Raph asked again after a minute and I opened my eyes to find him slowly inching over. "What's wrong?"

"What makes you think something's wrong?" I countered without considering my words as he sat down next to me.

"Because ya don't usually get so worked up about _little_ things." He admitted truthfully. "And – yur my _brother_." He added with a smile but I didn't return it which made his quickly vanish again. "Ya okay?" He asked in a whisper.

"No." I told him with a little shake of my head looking at the ground as I spoke.

"What happened?" He requested in concern.

"Shredder had a – mental defense in Irma's mind and I – I saw – _him_ – again." I informed my brother quietly causing him to wince before gently putting his arm around my shoulders.

"No wonder yur so mad at me." He stated a little off topic but in complete understanding. "I'm sorry, I – I didn't mean ta _scare_ ya."

"I don't want to lose another brother Raph." I told him quietly as I curled up a little more into my lotus position.

"Ya _won't_!" He informed me sternly, pulling me into the hug a little more. "I _promise_!"

…

I opened my eyes again as I came out of my meditation and looked around to find Zira curled up behind me on the bed while Raph was laying on the other one in the thralls of a power nap, leaving me to sigh as I turned to look out the window, finding that my session hadn't helped to dissolve my exhaustion.

I knew I needed to rest, I was gonna start _losing it_ soon if I didn't, but I _couldn't_ sleep. Every time I tired the memory assaulted me again and again to the point that I would find myself jumping back into conciseness before so much as a few minutes had passed.

I had to wonder if this was actually apart of Shredder's _attack_ , to fill a person with so much fear that they couldn't sleep and therefore slowly exhaust themselves. Even Zira had been forced to _push_ herself into slumber through her ability, even though she tried to hide the fact that she was doing it.

Deciding that I could at the very least perform a proper _watch_ during my burst of insomnia I got to my feet again and quietly made my way out the window where I started up the outside of the building to the roof.

As I made it to the top of the abandoned hotel; situated somewhere at the very edge of the dome I quietly looked around in an attempt to spot the safe area we had chosen as the rendezvous point in case of separation.

Leo had had some concerns about the female ninja's possible ability to hone in on our connection, so I knew that my brothers were only _blocking_ me for that reason, but not being able to _sense_ him or Mikey still had me worried.

Thankfully the safe house didn't appear to have been damaged which was a good sign that they hadn't been attacked. But unfortunately we couldn't join them just yet as Slash and the others were likely still searching for us.

After a few minutes of searching the area for movement I was about to head back down when my attention was quickly brought to a _blur_ across the way and my heart stopped.

'When had they gotten so _close_?'

They obviously hadn't found us yet as the movement of the blurs were uncoordinated as if they were still searching. But it wouldn't take them much longer to find our hiding spot.

It was going to take at least another hour for Raph to completely recover; the fact that the nano-bots in his body had put him to sleep was proof of that, and Zira hadn't slept for a couple of _days_. She hadn't been trained like us and though she was trying not to show it, it was obvious that she was exhausted.

We were in no condition for another battle right now and that was _exactly_ what our enemy was counting on.

So before I really realized what I was doing, I booked it to the building next door, making sure to stay as _visible_ as possible so no ninja in their right mind would be able to miss me.

And they _didn't_

It wasn't long before I had at least two invisible creatures behind me and judging from the noise, one was _Slash_. Thankfully this section of the city was still undergoing construction so people could safely live here, which gave me plenty of ideas for the scaffolding, cranes and other such equipment as I continued to lead them through the abandoned part of town.

When I finally made it to a large construction sight in the process of designing another skyscraper, I quickly bolted for the far corner of a nearby roof to land on a large I-beam hanging from a crane. Using its momentum I then swung over to the skeleton of a tower across from it, where I was able to safely land on one of the top floors.

Looking back I found that the two other ninja had been right behind me, and realized that for such a big guy Slash was ridiculously _fast_.

'And now I know _why_.' I thought to myself when said turtle pressed something on his wrist and promptly dissolved into a picture of orange particles before reappearing right behind me a second later.

I swore under my breath as I jumped to avoid the attack, causing his weapon to crush the boards under our feet, which forced me to back-peddle again in an attempt to get to safe ground before I was pulled into the abyss.

However just when I thought I had made it Slash materialized in my path once again and swung his morning star at my chest like he was playing a ridiculously violent game of baseball.

I just barely managed to avoid the attack as I moved my body around his weapon, however in doing so I ended up over the hollowed-out center of the building, where I found myself promptly falling until I reached out and adhered the surface adapter on my hand to another metal beam a few stories down.

Quickly getting my footing again I looked up to discover Slash was none to happy that I had something up my sleeve as well and promptly jumped down to land on the beam with more grace than someone his size had any right to display.

In seconds his weapon was pounding the metal into dented shapes as I maneuvered around and under the small patchwork of walkways, doing my damndest to stay ahead of him as he continued to use his transporter to try and throw me off track.

Unfortunately my smaller size was only going to help me for so long and on top of that I was still forced to block out my brothers so Slash wouldn't find them, which meant no one was coming to my aid. I had to find a way to get rid of this guy before he got rid of me.

Deciding that my best bet was to knock him into the void and hope the fall would take away at least a little of his power, I quickly maneuvered into a position where I could allow him to attempt another attack, before swinging up onto the beam behind him, brought out my staff and used it to grab onto the protruding edge of his shell causing him to thrash around in an attempt to dislodge me.

Though I tried to steer him toward the abyss, he wasn't having any of it and promptly backed up intending to crush me against a wall, forcing me to jump over his shoulder where he quickly made a grab for my neck but I managed to hold my staff up in time to intercept.

Clearly he thought at this point that he would just crush my supposedly _wooden_ weapon in his grip, but the metal core saw to it that I had enough time to change my grip so my left hand was in the center allowing me to go for the tanto on my belt which made a soft * _shing_ * as it cut through the air and struck his face.

He bellowed at the unexpected hit, allowing me to once again jump onto his shoulder where I brought my dagger up and into his side where I knew the bridge of his shell would be softer and easer to piece.

Slash continued to roar with pain and anger as I sustained my assault, repeatedly stabbing him over and over, desperate to take him out as I knew I wouldn't survive to try again.

But before I could make it through his armor a large hand wrapped around my chest forcing the attack to stop as I was brought back around to stare him down. It was clear that he was furious by this point, obviously he wasn't accustomed to being outmatched, and it was this rage that gave me the opening I needed to kick off against his plastron and free myself from his grip.

Unfortunately for me this sent me out over the hole I had been trying to send him into, but I instinctively reached around to protect my head and let my shell take the hit as I crashed through at least three floors before finally reaching one that held.

"Ow!" I proclaimed sourly before flipping over backwards to avoid Slash as he attempted to crush me by dropping down on top of my position. However he wasted no time with the unsuccessful attack and immediately bore down with his weapon once again.

While I was able to back flip out-of-the-way he expertly adjusted his course and sent the large iron ball flying back into my direction, but thankfully I was able to raise my arm in time and used the energy from my surface adapter to form a shield.

However even though I caught the physical weapon somehow the _force_ behind the attack still hit my body to the point that I nearly collapsed, which _shouldn't_ have happened as my shield was designed to cut the force of a physical attack in half.

Clearly Slash was _not_ your average, run-of-the-mill muscle-head, if he was using that kind of strength all the time the pressure that he exerted with every swing should have _destroyed_ his body by now. But somehow he was able to _ignore_ the laws of motion and put all that power into his attack, even the force that should have been directed at _him_.

Needless to say I wasn't prepared for that and was also not ready from another attack so soon after the first, but it came anyway and a second later my shied shattered like a sheet of glass leaving him to maneuver again and take another fast swing that I didn't have the energy to avoid and could only bare it as it hit directly in the center of my chest.

I tried to ignore the pain as a hit a wall on the other side of the room, but when I lifted a hand to test the damaged done to my plastron I realized that wasn't going to be an option, for my chest had literally _caved in_ and I was now loosing blood faster than my body could produce it.

It didn't take long before I was gasping for air and found myself collapsing back against the wall when I no longer had the strength to hold myself up, which left me to just helplessly watch as Slash walked up with a low laugh emitting from his malicious little grin.

However just when I was starting to think that this might be it, Slash stopped in his tracks as another swirl of orange flecks danced around the area leaving me with the immediate notion that another presence was standing at my side, but I didn't have the strength to see who it was before I felt a hand touch my shoulder.

"What are you doing?" Slash demanded angrily before charging again. But I didn't hear what else he had to say for everything promptly disappeared into a flash of orange light, leaving the faded edges of my vision to swallow the world a moment later.


	8. Chapter 7

Chapter 7:

( _3_ _rd_ _:_ )

"Red!" Zira's voice broke into Raph's thoughts suddenly forcing him back into consciousness. "Hey, wake up!" She ordered sternly and he opened his eyes to find her leaning over his face not even half an inch from his beak.

"Get away from me!" He commanded as he bolted off the bed to take up a defensive stance before looking around in confusion when he realized that something about the picture before him was _missing_. "Where's Donnie?"

"That's what I want to know." She proclaimed seriously. "I woke up and he was gone."

"That's ridicules, he wouldn't just _leave_." Raph complained as he rushed over to the window and took a look around.

"I'm not saying he _did_." She countered quickly and he turned back to her again before throwing himself out the window where he quickly climbed to the top of the building and searched the area for anything that would point him in the direction of his brother.

"What is it with you guys and _roofs_?" Zira muttered sourly as she crawled her way up as well where she watched the turtle slowly beginning to panic as he pulled out his phone.

"Pick up, pick up!" He ordered the phone before swearing loudly as he received Donnie's voicemail and quickly dialed another number. "Come on Leo." He demanded after a minute only to get the same treatment. "Damnit, somebody _pick up_!"

"You know they're keeping communication to a limit." Zira told him truthfully.

"Yeah well that doesn't help us _now_." He proclaimed angrily before sitting down on an air-conditioner to look at the ground as he attempted to contact his family by way of their spiritual connection, but still he received nothing for his trouble.

"DAMNIT!" He screamed in anger before looking toward the area he knew Leo and Mikey to be and quickly headed for the edge of the roof to jump for another nearby building.

"Where are you going?" Zira asked as she followed him gracefully.

"To find Leo." He countered without looking at her.

"What about Donnie? He may need our help." She demanded causing him to round on her.

"You don't think I _know_ that?" He proclaimed angrily before forcing himself to calm down again and quickly turned to continue his free-running. "I can't contact him, I don't know where he is and I don't know how to find him." He added solemnly. "So we need ta find _Leo_." He said again.

"And how's _he_ going to help?" She countered.

"I don't know." He yelled without looking at her. "But – he's our _leader_ – he needs ta _know_." He admitted sternly which finally seemed to satisfy Zira as she didn't say another word until they reached the safe place.

…

When they finally got to their destination the two looked around for a minute hoping to spot something that might lead them to Leo or Mikey, even though Raph was very aware that they probably _wouldn't_ find anything.

His brothers were well trained ninja after all and the reason they had come here in the first place was to _hide_ , they weren't about to leave anything lying around to say 'here I am'.

"Okay, now what?" Zira asked without a lot of criticism but Raph didn't answer her as he walked over to the corner where there were several pipes set into the roof that pumped air, gas and anything else a person might need into the building below.

He then causally removed a sai from his belt, turned it so he was gripping the blade and started taping the end of the handle against the pipes in a rhythmic fashion.

"What are you doing?" Zira demanded as she walked up to raise an eyebrow at the strange tics and clicks he was managing to impersonate. "That's not Morse code." She advertised.

"No it's not." He admitted simply but didn't explain further as he started over from the beginning and sent the message again.

"Then what is it?" She requested in annoyance.

"It's _our_ Morse code." He answered as he was about to start the message over again but backed off when he received an answer. "They're here." He proclaimed before turning to the roof entrance and pulled the door right off its hinges to walk inside where he promptly looked toward the bottom of the staircase and quietly tapped out another rhythm on the guardrail before listening again until he got another response.

"And what does that mean?" Zira asked sourly.

"Meet ya halfway." He explained simply before jumping onto the banister and quickly made his way down the levels.

"What, now you got something against _stairs_ too?" Zira complained sternly.

"Then stay there." He called up and she sighed before following him in the same manner, leaving them to jump from one side of the staircase to the other until finally movement on a floor caught Raph's attention and he swung over to perch on the bar as his brother emerged from the darkness.

"What happened?" Leo commanded quickly as Zira joined them. "Where's Donnie?"

"I don't know, he disappeared." Raph answered as calmly as he could.

"What?"

" _Again_?" Mikey added worriedly which caused everyone to quickly stare at Zira questionably.

"Don't look at me; I didn't do _anything_ this time." She answered truthfully.

"What happened?" Leo declared in Raph's direction again and his brother quickly gave him a rundown of what had transpired as they made their way back up to the roof.

"Well you seem to be taking it _better_ than last time around." Mikey put in a few minutes later after noticing that Raph was clearly putting a lot of effort into not worrying himself to death.

"For now." Raph admitted sourly. "But – Donnie can take care a himself." He finally added after taking a huge calming breath.

"Zira." Leo suddenly spoke up after a few minutes when they had reached the top the building again. "Are you in _any_ pain?" He asked causing her to blink at him before looking down at the soul chain on her wrist which was glowing slightly.

"No." She answered simply. "But I don't know how long that'll last."

"Okay, we should –" Leo started again before seemingly answering his previous question when he suddenly buckled under a phantom pain in his chest.

"Oh shit." Raph swore as he felt it too and knew that it had to be _bad_ if they could still feel Donnie's pain through the mental _block_ that their brother had in place.

"Okay – I felt _that_." Zira announced as she gripped the cuff around her wrist in discomfort.

"Uh guys." Mikey randomly proclaimed which quickly got their attention as the youngest of them pointed toward something outside and they all turned to find Shredder's kunoichi watching them from the other side of the now door-less frame.

" _You_!" Raph growled in anger as he stormed his way out to face off with her. " _Where_ is he?" He demanded loudly only to earn a confused cock of the head from the ninja, but just when she seemed about to answer an image of orange specks next to her conformed into the body of Slash.

" _Karai_!" He demanded as he stomped toward her angrily leaving the turtles to stare in shock of his sudden appearance.

'Since _when_ could they do _that_?'

"What is it now?" The kunoichi proclaimed calmly forcing him to growl low in his throat before continuing.

"I _HAD_ one of 'em; but that _PET_ of yours _SAVED_ _him_." He bellowed loudly causing the turtles to perk up, though his last couple of words had them remaining silent in order to hear the rest.

"What ever is your _point_?" She questioned calmly causing him to narrow his eyes at her.

"You KNEW?" He demanded at the top of his lungs. "Where is he? I'll _kill_ him myself." This didn't appear to sit will with Karai as she promptly kicked out at him so hard that the behemoth crashed into a wall on the other side of the roof.

"You will _not_ touchhim." She informed him in a deadly voice as he pulled himself out of the new hole to charge her, but she just calmly flipped over his shell where she as able to tap the mechanism on his wrist that had brought him there in the first place.

"Damn y–" He started again but his curse was promptly cut off as he was sent to some other unknown place leaving Karai to crush the little piece of tech in her hand that was likely what he would need to _return_.

"Wait!" Leo ordered when she reached down to activate her own transporter and she quickly looked at him while still holding her finger over the button. "Where's Donnie?"

"If he has found the information my master wanted, then he will be _returned_ to Shredder." She proclaimed simply causing the turtles to panic and for Leo to charge her.

But even though his brothers and Zira where right behind him, the blue-masked turtle was the only one to reach Karai before she activated the transport device and they both disappeared in a flash of orange particles leaving Raph to immediately complain about the _familiar_ issue.

"Not _again_!"

…

( _Donnie's POV_ )

When I opened my eyes again I honestly thought it had all been a dream, but when I looked around to find that I was _not_ in a place that I recognized I bolted into a sitting position which was when my mind immediately reminded me that I was seriously _hurt_ and was in a great deal of pain – or at least – I _should_ have been.

Quickly looking down I found that my plastron had completely reformed, with no blood and no damage left in its wake; not even a _scar_ , which left me even more confused as I touched the area of my chest that as I remembered had basically been _crushed_.

This was when I noticed something on the ground and looked down to find that it was my _gear_ – all folded neatly into a pile at my side. I couldn't help but raise an eye-ridge at this in question, as I really hadn't been expecting my _captors_ to let me keep that kind of stuff.

Getting over my shock quickly, I looked around the room in an attempt to figure out where I was, causing my brain to swiftly supply the answer.

' _Vault'_

Carefully maneuvering out of the chair I was sitting in I got up to take in the room until I found a door and realized quickly that it was locked. I had read about old banks back in the day and knew that they didn't mess around when it came to protecting other people's money.

There would be no way I could force my way through that thing so I decided to wait it out and see what my subjugators had in store, which allowed me a minute to carefully check over my gear and found that the only thing missing was my _dagger._ I hoped that meant it had just been left behind in the fight and that Slash hadn't destroyed it.

Just for laughs I decided to try my phone, but as I had expected the walls were too thick to get a signal. It was some several minutes later that anything interesting happened and I looked up from my place of resting against a wall when the sound of the wheel-lock turning informed me that someone was entering the room.

Slowly getting to my feet again, I watched as the door opened slightly so I could see who was behind it, which turned out to be the _third_ ninja, the one I had faced off against briefly during our attempt to get Irma and the kids to a safe place.

He still had his suite on so couldn't see his face but based on his body language he wasn't interested in being threatening, in fact he looked to be more _curious_ than anything, and not only that but he even had a tray of _food_ in his hands; which he nervously placed in middle of the room before scooting back to sit in front of the door.

"Thank you." I offered kindly deciding to be nice for the time being in the hopes that he would continue doing the same. But he just tilted his head again as he continued to study me curiously.

"Are you the one that helped me?" I decided to add but he just continued to watch me. "Can you even _understand_ what I'm saying?" I asked only to receive another tilt of the head in the opposite direction.

I sighed as I realized that this probably wasn't going to go anywhere and looked down to study the food which I couldn't help but smile at as I realized it was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Now that was _quaint_

I couldn't smell any kind of drugs or poison in it but there were plenty of things that even I had a hard time sensing, so I wasn't about to take the risk. Besides my body was designed to go for long periods of time without food; though I'd have to _sleep_ more to compensate, I could easily survive for several months or longer on the last meal I ate.

I looked toward the ninja again when a splash of gold caught my attention and I couldn't help but start a little when I realized that he was holding my _staff_.

I quietly reached back to touch my shoulder and realized that it was indeed missing but what really confused me was that I had specifically made sure that I'd had it after checking my supplies, 'so how in the hell had he gotten a hold of it without me seeing him?'

I continued to watch him closely as he ran a finger over the wood inquisitively before looking back at me and after another minute seemed to realize that he had taken something that was mine – which in turn caused the _strangeness_ to begin.

He seemed to almost _blur_ like he was no longer occupying the space causing me to blink in an attempt to correct the image which only served to show me that he had moved into the corner without me actually seeing the action.

But it got even weirder when I looked down to find that my staff had been laid gently in my hands even though I had never moved into the position to hold it as such. And it was this that caused my eyes to widen as I finally realized what had happened.

Looking back at the other ninja I found that I couldn't even speak as it was so unreal, but my mind continued to inform me that the pieces fit, that he wasn't an ordinary ninja – in fact he wasn't even an ordinary _mutant_.

He could control _time_

* * *

R&R


	9. Chapter 8

Chapter 8:

( _3_ _rd_ _:_ )

Hell's Kitchen

Leo was able to land on his feet when he rematerialized in a swirl of orange spots even though he suddenly felt as though his stomach had just been shot out of a cannon. However, he wasn't so lucky when it came to dodging Karai's attempts to force him away from her and a second later he found himself crashing into a wall.

Thankfully, he was able to immediately counter in an attempt to assess the threat but she only continued to stand where she was, glaring at him as if annoyed at his presence, which allowed him to take a better look around and realize _where_ he was.

"You gotta be kidding." He complained as he noticed the overgrown city that thrived _outside_ of the dome. "Great." He sighed loudly and quietly dropped his guard in annoyance. Given what had happened _last time_ he really wasn't looking forward to going through the entering process again.

But at least now he knew how Karai and her team had found their way inside the overprotective city.

"Wait!" He called after her when she suddenly bolted down the street but she ignored him. "Please, I just want to find my brother."

"You should really try worrying about _yourself_ for once." She advised without looking back.

"I _can't_." He countered immediately, causing her to finally stop and turn to watch him curiously as he ran up to her again. "My family is all I have, I would be _nothing_ without them." He continued truthfully. "And I think you know _exactly_ how I feel." He added seriously.

"Why do you say that?" She requested quietly.

"Donnie told me what he saw." Leo continued as he took a few steps toward her. "You obviously don't like Slash – but the _other one_ –" He started sternly. "You were willing to throw away your mission to make sure he was safe."

She didn't respond this time, so he decided to cautiously go on with his theory. "He's obviously too old to be your son, so he must be your _brother_ – which means that you _do_ know _exactly_ how I feel." He repeated causing her to suddenly dart into a face-to-face confrontation with him, which suggested that she completely _expected_ him to _back down_.

However, he held his ground

She was accustomed to people listening to her and if they didn't she was accustomed to putting them in their place. But _he_ was an alpha as well and wasn't about to _bow_ to something that he saw in himself.

"You know _nothing_." She growled in his face quietly.

"If that's true then why are you suddenly so _defensive_?" He countered calmly knowing that this battle of wits was going to depend on who could keep their cool the longest.

"What makes you think you know me?" She proclaimed demandingly.

"I don't." He admitted simply. "But I'll do _anything_ to protect my family – just like _you_ would." He added sternly, causing her to stand a little straighter which made him think of a coiled snake for some reason.

And in the next moment he understood _why_ , for his theory about her shape changing was finally _proved_ when her appearance suddenly morphed into something akin to a mutant _snake_ with arms as she attacked again.

"I _do_ understand." She admitted suddenly in a hissing tone of voice as she struck out at him with her teeth. "What gives you the _right_?" She demanded as he dodged to escape her tail which whipped around in an attempt to pierce his chest like some kind of living spear.

"What gives you the right to _question_ my family morals after what you _did_ to _yours_?" She finally demanded as Leo managed to duck around another attack before kicking her away as she could bite him again.

"Because I _didn't_." He countered with a deadly calm. "I would never harm my family and I would _never_ harm my clan. Whatever it is that you believe that I have done is a _lie_."

"You were _there_! I _saw_ you!" She hissed as she coiled up in anger a few feet away. "You would ask me to _question_ my _memories_?" She demanded loudly clearly getting ready to strike again, but his answer finally stopped her.

"No! I would _never_ ask _anyone_ to question something that means so much to them. That's _your_ choice and yours alone." He informed her calmly causing her to stare at him in shock. "Which is why I can't understand why you would have me question _mine_?"

With this said, the two continued to stare each other down in a minute of silence as they tried to figure out if the other was telling the truth or if it was just a ruse.

"I don't know what you've been told." Leo went on quietly. "But we never _had_ another _clan_ ; we escaped from Shredder's prison when we were 4 years old. Our father found us and _saved_ us, he never _asked_ us to fight, he never asked us to do anything we didn't feel was right." He proclaimed standing up straighter as he added one last thing for her to think over.

"Can _you_ say the same?"

Her only response, however, was to just morph back into the human-like appearance that wore her black suit and strolled away as if his words didn't mean anything. But he knew he had hit home and she was now trying to find some way to prove him wrong.

However, judging from the way she had yet to counter him – she didn't have one.

…

New Manhattan

"Honestly what does it _take_ ta keep people from _disappearin'_ around here?" Raph grumbled loudly, trying to collect himself again so he didn't worry his baby brother.

"There!" Mikey called suddenly and they all promptly turned to see where he was pointing, only to spot the last little few flakes of the orange-colored transportation which had just transpired on the _other side_ of the dome.

"Oh, that's just _great_." Raph complained before looking around to find Zira crouching on the spot that his brother had just disappeared. "What are ya doin'?" He asked sourly.

"Their transporters run on _plutonium_." She explained absentmindedly as she picked up the little piece of tech that Karai had thrown away before leaving. "And _this_ has just enough for one ride."

"So – you can use it to transport us to Leo?" Mikey translated suddenly causing his brother to look at him.

"Ya understood that?" He asked in shock and the orange-clad turtle promptly waved away the doubt with a big grin on his face.

"Comic books dude." He proclaimed as if that explained everything.

"He's right." Zira piped up again as she stood to mess around with the little transporter on her wrist. "But I can only do it _once_." She added sternly.

"We only _need_ –" Raph began to counter when she continued.

"If you'd let me _finish_." She interrupted sourly. "I can either take us to the place your leader was just transported, or I can take us to _Donnie_."

"What?" Raph demanded in a rush as he walked up to her. "How?"

"We're _connected_ remember?" She answered simply as she waved her left hand to show him the tattoo that was still glowing to inform her that she was a little to far away from the other end. "All I need to do is use the soul chain as the location and it should take us right to Donnie."

"Should?" He countered dryly and she glared at him.

"Take what you get Red." She commanded sternly. "Now, _where_ do you want to go?"

…

( _Donnie's POV_ )

Well that explained how Slash had healed so quickly, not to mention _myself_. If this mutant could indeed control _time_ then there would have been little issue simply speeding up time around a wound to heal it, which most likely would have been _instantaneously_ , as it would have been more like _reversing_ to the point that it had never happened.

The curious part of my mind couldn't help wondering how it worked but the doctor side of me had to wonder what kind of _strain_ that put on his body. He obviously already had a problem with his voice, seeing as he never talked and not only that but I had noticed how he seemed to _touch_ things quite a bit which made me wonder if he was _blind_ as well.

These things could have easily arisen due to the laws of light and sound which would have worked very differently in a space-time bubble. If he didn't have some kind of _protection_ from such effects he would have likely just _lost_ the ability to perceive them.

I admit I was somewhat pleased to see that he seemed to have adjusted very well considering. In fact, as I thought it over, it made sense that he would have the ability to _see_ future events and adjust accordingly in that regard, which would explain how he was able to get the better of me during our earlier skirmish.

After a minute of studying him again, it seemed that I even got an _answer_ to these questions as well, for when I decided to try my hand at speaking with him again he _turned_ to listen _before_ I could even open my mouth.

"That's really impressive." I told him with a smile, but lost it quite quickly when I found myself turning to look at the door which he clearly didn't have an interest in blocking anymore. After all it didn't matter how skilled I was there was no way I would be able to get past him.

But that didn't mean I wasn't going to _try_

"Thank you for helping me." I offered kindly with a respectful bow, making sure to keep my movements slow and unthreatening. "But I need to go now." I finished before carefully making my way toward the door.

However, just when I thought I would make it the image in front of me _changed_ and I was suddenly sitting in the chair from earlier, and not only that but he was now once again guarding the door.

I found myself sighing as I realized what had happened and turned back to him again. "Please." I spoke up causing him to tilt his head at me questionably. "I _can't_ stay here." I finished before standing up to try again only to find myself sitting back in the chair a few seconds later where I realized that I appeared to be trapped in the worst kind of prison.

A _time-loop_

It seemed that the very act of trying to escape forced me to return to the _default_ _position_ , which would explain why I couldn't sense my brothers, as time on the outside was probably passing rather normally.

I couldn't help but sigh again in response to my predicament, which let me realize that the air I took in seemed to be almost _stale_. I couldn't know for sure why that was, but my best guess was that the more the loop – _looped_ the more energy it consumed and the weaker its walls became.

"I know you don't want to hurt me." I told the ninja as I stood once again watching as he fidgeted nervously with the action. "But I need to get back to my _brothers_." I informed him sternly before starting to walk toward the door again.

The experience with the loop was a little different this time as I actually _saw_ him stand up but a second later I still found myself sitting in the chair, only this time my wrists had been duct-taped to the arms of the seat.

This, more than anything, seemed to prove my theory that the more times he was forced to change the time-loop the less energy he had to keep it up altogether, which would explain why we was slowly becoming more _aggressive_ , as it was an attempt to discourage me from trying again.

When I looked back up it was to find that he was now standing only a few feet away where he proceeded to watch me expectantly, clearly thinking that he had succeeded. But I was not about to let that be the end. Duct tape may have been a decent binding source but it was still _tape_ , it was made to hold under pressure not under _tear_.

So keeping eye contact with the ninja I expertly twisted my wrist around until I could rip at the strip and pull myself free in order to get at the one holding my other arm before standing all together once again, leaving him to cock his head at me curiously.

I didn't say anything this time and just causally walked around him toward the door, where I was pleased to discover that I had actually touched the thing before I once again found myself in the chair.

However, this time it was hard to be pleased with myself for forcing his hand once again as I immediately took notice of the fact that I had a _gun_ in my mouth and that my own finger was on the trigger.

* * *

Chapter 9: (Coming Friday)


	10. Chapter 9

Chapter 9:

( _3_ _rd_ _:_ )

Hell's Kitchen

Leo kept one eye on his surroundings and the other on Karai at all times, having honestly forgotten how _chaotic_ it was trying to watch his own back. He'd barely been out there an hour and already he missed how Mikey would call out things that he saw or how Donnie would suggest their next move and even how Raph would complain about his every order.

They said that a leader was only as good as the team that he lead and never had those words rang so true in his ears than they did right now.

"Hey!" He called out when Karai suddenly ducked into a dark alley trying once again to lose him, but he wasn't willing to let the only person that could help him find Donnie get away, which was how he found himself perched on the guardrail of a fire escape after finding her hiding place where she proceeded to look up at him in annoyance before sighing.

"Will you stop _following_ me?" She ordered sourly.

"No, I won't." He informed her childishly, feeling for a second like they were actually two _normal_ arguing teenagers. "Would _you_ stop if _I_ was the ticket to finding someone youloved?" He added seriously as he hopped down to stand next to her again, but she just scoffed and began to stroll along the street again, choosing to completely ignore him.

"Why –" She suddenly started to ask a few minutes later, but promptly looked away and shut her mouth when Leo turned to her.

"I'm not as patient as Donnie, but I'll try to answer any questions you have." He offered kindly and barely caught the way she looked at him out of the corner of her eye as if deciding if she believed that.

"What reason would there be for us _remembering_ an event differently?" She finally conceded and even though he didn't feel like that had been her original question he tried to answer it all the same.

"I don't really know." He admitted taking a quick second to check an abandoned building for gang members as they continued to walk through the city. "I know that _Irma_ has somehow been brainwashed into completely forgetting that she worked for Shredder." He suggested causing her to round on him quickly.

" _But_ – that doesn't prove Shredder had anything to do with it." He added quickly before she could speak. "I'm just saying that it's a strange _coincidence_ that two people who happen to work for the same man would be so confused."

"And what makes you think it's _me_ who's confused?" She countered quietly.

"Good point." He admitted causing her to pause for half a second as if she hadn't expected that response. "I don't know much about it, but I _saw_ the understanding in Irma's eyes when all the contradictions in her memories suddenly made sense."

"It may not seem like I was willing to take your words to heart, but I _did_." He added sternly. "I meditated and searched my memories – looking for _anything_ that might prove that you were right."

"And?" She asked simply as they came to a stop to watch each other curiously.

"I admit I _did_ find a few things that didn't add up." He confessed. "So I contacted my father and I _asked_ about them."

"You would _question_ your master?" She proclaimed in disgust.

"Yes I did, and he was more than happy to answer my questions and put my mind at peace." Leo answered calmly. "I've noticed that you and I are a lot alike." He went on after a minute of thought. "Would _you_ be willing to ask _your_ master the same questions?"

"Of course not." She proclaimed angrily. "It's not a student's place to _ask_ such things."

"Then _how_ would we ever _learn_?" He countered quickly, causing her to shut her mouth again. "Karai, as students we _must_ ask these questions or we run the risk of _losing_ that information to time. If all our teachers did throughout history was keep the answers for themselves instead of passing them on; it would not only make the younger generation weaker but also _incompetent_."

She didn't seem to be able to respond to that and Leo figured she probably wouldn't anytime soon, after all it wasn't something that could really be _argued_ against. "Karai." He started again kindly. "I don't want you to throw everything you know away, but if _I_ were in your position I couldn't _live_ with not knowing."

"Then I guess it's a good thing I'm not _you_." She countered cheaply before storming off again leaving him to watch her retreating back for a moment before sighing and continued to follow her.

…

( _Donnie's POV_ )

I had to use every bit of my training to not freak out and accidentally blow my head off as I pulled the gun out of my mouth and threw it to the ground before looking toward the ninja again who was still watching me in expectation.

"That was uncalled for." I informed him sternly, but he just calmly tilted his head at me again and I sighed.

I really had to wonder if I _wanted_ to push him any farther than that. Though I was aware that my bones were stronger than average thanks to the nano-bots, I had _obviously_ never tested to see if I could take a bullet to the head.

For all I knew his _friends_ were very capable of such a thing causing the younger ninja to believe it was _normal_ and think nothing of using it to _punish_ me; believing that it wouldn't cause harm.

"Listen." I tired again as I leaned forward over my knees choosing not to stand again just yet. "I don't know if you can understand me, but I don't think you want to _hurt_ me." I proclaimed as I kept eye contact with the helmet hoping that he was looking at me as well. "But you'll _have_ to." I suddenly informed him as I stood up once again. "Because I'm _not_ stopping."

With that I started walking one more time toward the door and half expected to find myself back in the chair as I reached out to actually touch the cold metal. However, what I got this time wasn't another time-loop, but a physical _attack_.

It appeared that he couldn't make any kind of vocal noises himself, for I hadn't even received so much as a _growl_ before I found myself skidding across the floor.

I jumped back to my feet instantly as he crouched in front of the door to guard it however when I started forward again I heard a * _snap_ * like a _beak_ being closed in warning which made me stop as I realized _what_ he was.

There weren't a lot of creatures that could make that noise and considering that I hadn't seen anything that qualified as _wings_ yet, it was reasonable to believe that he was probably another _turtle_.

However, it was clear from the way that he crouched a lot to use his _arms_ for support that he was far more _animal_ than I was; which meant that I had an extremely dangerous, not to mention _powerful_ person on my hands that may or _may not_ have the moral code required to use it _wisely_.

This was getting worse by the second – and it didn't look like it was going to stop as we both jumped when something suddenly hit the outside of the door which such force that I actually heard the 3-foot-thick solid metal door _bend_ slightly, which unfortunately informed me that it _wasn't_ Raph.

My brother was certainly capable of such a thing though he tended to lean more toward prying and pulling, where the person on the other side of that door was clearly more accustomed to just punching his way through things. So it could really only be _one_ person.

As I moved to pulled out my weapon again my attention was suddenly drawn to the time controlling ninja as he grabbed his head and fell to his knees like he was in pain which immediately caused the room to _ripple_ like a mirage and I suddenly wished I hadn't pushed the loop so far, as he clearly no longer had the power to hold it up under Slash's assault.

I didn't really understand _why_ a physical attack would affect him so badly, but there were a lot of things about this situation I didn't understand. – Like right now when I decided to take up a defensive stance in _front_ of him in an attempt to protect the other turtle from Slash as one last strike from the behemoth finally collapsed the door.

I don't know what happened or what I saw after that but when the time-loop finally failed altogether and the ripple of energy hit me as it returned to its owner, I was suddenly no longer seeing the vault but a _rooftop_ , and not only that but there was someone standing on the roof – and that someone was _me_.

As I stood there in shock my other-self suddenly turned around as if he had been _expecting_ me and quickly got to his feet to scream something into the time-bubble, however, due to the soundless void I couldn't _hear_ him, but I was able to make out _one_ _word_ just from reading his lips.

" _Zero_!"

Slash's sudden roar of anger immediately caused the time-portal to burst, bringing me crashing back into my own reality. "You miserable little _traitor_!" He continued to yell as he stormed his way toward us but thankfully my instincts took over as my brain struggled to make sense of what I had seen and in a second I had raised my left hand to point the tip of my gantlet at the larger turtle.

With a simple press of a button on the palm's control pad I activated another program which caused a small pocket of air in front of Slash's face to suddenly _condense_ into a small sphere before releasing again to explode out-word like a popped balloon. Only _this_ balloon came with the added effect of forcing Slash back a few feet which gave me just enough time to grab Zero and hightail it out of the vault before he could recover.

"You son-of –" Slash started to swear as he made to chase after us but I quickly turned again to activate another air bomb causing him to scream as it imploded next to his ear.

He could be as big and as powerful as he wanted, but I'd certainly seen enough of his fighting style by now to locate his _weak points_.

"Go, go, go!" I ordered, pushing Zero through the severely collapsed building that had at one point been the bank, which allowed me to realize quickly that we were outside the dome again as all around us were trees and plants that wouldn't have been so common had we still been under the protective shield.

"Whoa!" I called out in shock when I headed toward an area where sunlight was peaking through only to stop in my tracks before I walked right off the 12th floor of a skyscraper.

"You gotta be kidding." I complained before looking back when Slash burst through the doorway of the vault in a fit of anger and I quickly pointed my gantlet at him again, causing him to actually flinch. But this time there was no attack and instead a little disk of _physical_ matter shot out to unfold into the familiar form of _Evinrude_ and buzzed about for half a second before turning to me.

"Stairs!" I ordered it and the thing immediately sent out an echo-location ping in all directions which immediately started reporting back at my gantlet with a _map_ that swiftly flipped around its axis as it received more and more information before finally locating what I needed, causing the little mechanical dragon fly to start leading the way through the grove of roots.

It took a little finagling, but we were barely able to traverse the stairs when we found them, which left the much larger Slash in our dust as he thrashed about in an angry haze trying to reach us through the endless jungle of wooden vines.

However, we hadn't even gotten half way down before we hit a section of the stairwell that was so crowded with plants that even we couldn't get through, but my little flying navigator quickly zipped over to hover in front of a wall leaving me to pull away some of the roots and find that it was actually a _door_.

With a little help from Zero, I was able to get through to the level beyond which I learned from a sign was the 8th floor and continued to push the other ninja along the path, leaving me to understand that he seemed more than willing to suddenly listen to anything I told him so long as I got him away from Slash, which looked like it was going to come in handy as I realized quickly that my navigator could no longer find a route out of the building other than going straight down.

"Zero?" I said gently causing him to look at me. "How good are you at _climbing_?"

I hadn't _seen_ how he'd made his way to the ground during out little fight before, but I was now starting to believe that he relied a lot on his time-shifting ability for things that he couldn't do on his own.

That being said it was obvious that having his time-loop broken had taken a lot out of him so I had some real doubts that he could even _use_ his abilities at the moment and given the way he cautiously backed away from the window I was _right_.

I couldn't help but sigh before reaching out to lay my hand on his shoulder. "It's okay." I told him softly. "Can you transport us out of here?" I requested causing him to tilt his head at me curiously. "Do you understand?" I added as I tapped my wrist in explanation and he quietly looked down at the transporter device on his arm before shaking his head.

Well, it was worth a try

But before I could think of another way out of our predicament; Slash suddenly came crashing through the wall we had just come from, moving so fast that all I could do was push Zero out-of-the-way and take the hit myself as the monster plowed into me and we both went tumbling out of the window.


	11. Chapter 10

Chapter 10:

( _3_ _rd_ _:_ )

Leo nearly jumped out of his shell when another transportation image of orange partials appeared in front of them which caused both him and Karai to draw their weapons at nearly the _same_ time as well as take nearly the _same_ stance.

They proceeded to look at each other strangely for half a second as if deciding if they were okay with this sudden _synchronicity_ before turning back to the possible threat only to find that it was Mikey, Raph and Zira.

"Leo?" Mikey asked clearly a little confused to see him.

"What happened?" Raph demanded of Zira without so much as a 'hello' for his leader. "Ya _said_ ya could take us ta _Donnie_."

"I DID!" She screamed back in his face before looking down at the tattoo on her wrist which was no longer glowing. "He must be around here _somewhere_." She added before pushing past him to search the area.

" _He must be around here somewhere_." Raph repeated insultingly as Leo walked up to give him a look. "Hey bro how was yur _date_?" He added with a smirk and his brother promptly glared at him before suddenly remembered something and spun around to find that Karai was _gone_.

"Oh, f***!" He swore under his breath causing his siblings to blink at him in shock of the sudden unexpected language from _Leo_ of all people, and he was about to use their attention to his advantage and order a search for her when Mikey suddenly called for a 'scatter' and they all bolted in opposite directions as Slash came crashing down like a turtle-shaped meteor from hell to land right where they had just been standing.

It didn't take but two seconds for Raph to dart toward the mutant and snatched the _purple mask_ the creature had in his grip. "Donnie!" He said quietly before pouncing on the larger turtle. "Where is he? Where is my _brother_?" He demanded dangerously.

"There." Mikey suddenly called out and they turned to find him pointing up at the building that Slash had just fallen from only to discover that the snake-version of Karai was swiftly making her way up the side.

"Go!" Leo ordered and they all quickly descended on the wall as well, for the three turtles had suddenly realized that they could sense their missing brother at the _top_.

…

It all happened so fast that Donnie really wasn't sure his brain had caught up yet. One second he was being attacked by Slash as they fell to their death and the next he was standing on top of the building to watch as the behemoth hit the ground without him.

He looked around when movement caught his attention again and found Zero watching him with extreme interest and quickly forced himself not to move as the time-ninja suddenly reached out to touch his face as if he suddenly _recognized_ him, which caused Donnie to realize he had lost his mask in the skirmish.

However he remained in a bit of a daze until he suddenly came to the understanding that he was once again under _attack_.

"Get away from him!" A snake mutant suddenly demanded as she swung her tail at his face in an attempt to defend her companion.

Though Donnie backed away quickly, this didn't stop her from trying to bite his head off again and again forcing him to block with his staff as she continued her assault with all the violence and anger of a mother bear.

"I wasn't going to hurt him." Donnie informed her sternly, finally realizing just _who_ she was before suddenly coming up short in his attempt to get away and ended up backing up straight into a wall giving her the perfect opportunity to take him out.

But before her fangs could make contact Zero suddenly reappeared in-between them; thus forcing her to quickly adjust her strike so she didn't hit him, leaving her to stare in shock at what her companion had just done.

" _Tokka_?" She asked, sliding into her human-form as her confusion hit home and he quietly held out his hands in a whoa-motion trying to communicate that she didn't need to attack anymore. "What are you –" She tried to ask but before she could finish her sentence Donnie's own backup arrived on the scene in the form of a clearly _pissed off_ Raphael.

"Whoa – hang on a minute." Donnie quickly informed him as his brother pulled out his weapons and nearly attacked until Donnie got in his way. "I'm okay." The younger of the two added sternly as he threw his arms around the larger turtle's shell in an attempt to hold him back.

"Donnie – what's going on?" Leo whispered as he, Mikey and Zira arrived on the roof as well.

"Well – I –" Said turtle started as he turned to look at the other two ninja, only to find that Karai was still staring at Zero like he had grown a second head or something. "– I have no idea." He finally admitted.

"Why –" Karai continued suddenly and everyone looked at them again. "Why would you _help_ him?" She added in a voice that suggested the action had seriously hurt her, but Zero quickly tried to make amends as he reached up to tap against the side of his helmet.

Donnie realized quickly that it wasn't Morse code but there was still a clear pattern that suggested _words_ were being made. "He is _not_ the same!" Karai suddenly demanded, but Zero quickly refuted that as he rushed over to touch Donnie's face again trying to find a way for her to understand.

"Tokka – they –" She attempted again but was interrupted as Zero made to remove his glove before carefully placing his hand over Donnie's; showing that they were nearly the same size, shape and even color, which left Donnie to come to the sudden understanding that he could now _sense_ the other turtle as well.

"Zero –" Karai tried in a more serious tone as she walked closer to them, causing him to reach out for her hand as well and forced her to place it on top of Donnie's. "Zero – he isn't –" She started to say again, but was once again interrupted when both her and Donnie suddenly _froze_ as if they were seeing something no one else was.

"Don?" Raph called after a minute of the strange connection which ended when his brother suddenly fell to his knees. But even though Raph immediately rushed forward to catch him his sibling seemed _unable_ to respond as he just stared blankly at the ground in shock.

"What did you _do_?" Raph demanded loudly as he rounded on the other two, but, before they had time to answer, he was attacking again.

"No!" Donnie attempted to speak up as he watched Karai push Zero behind her and back them both away from the angry turtle.

"Donnie." Leo suddenly said at his side, clearly not seeing the problem with the fight going on in front of them. As far as he was concerned Raph was doing his _job_. "What's wrong, are you okay?" He ordered sternly only to receive a very _lost_ look from his brother as he attempted to make his leader understand, but once again he couldn't get his voice to work.

However, as he turned back to the battle in front of them he suddenly found his _strength_ again and bolted toward his red-clad brother leaving everyone behind him in a confused state of shock.

Again Raph stopped dead in his tracks when Donnie suddenly appeared in front of him where he reached out to grab his shoulders, clearly wanting him to stop but also needed the extra support just to stay on his feet.

"Don?" He asked in confusion as he dropped his weapons in order to hold his brother up.

"Stop, Raph." Donnie begged in a tiny voice. " _Please_ , stop."

Raphael was obviously very confused by all this, given that all he could do was stare at him of a moment. But eventually his features softened and he finally nodded in agreement. "Okay." He stated quietly as Leo, Mikey and Zira rushed up to see what they could do.

However, everything went to hell all over again when a familiar form of orange specks appeared on the roof and _Slash_ stormed his way into the fray. "Karai!" He demanded loudly as he waltzed toward the female mutant who signed in annoyance as she hid Zero behind her again. "You damn _traitor_."

"Speak for yourself." She countered angrily. "I told you we needed them _alive_."

"I –" He tried to refute but she swiftly continued.

" _You_ would have _killed_ him had Zero not intervened." She proclaimed calmly.

"Well than what are you _waiting_ for?" He demanded as he turned to glare at the four brothers. "Let's _capture_ them already."

This immediately caused Mikey and Leo to pull out their weapons again and stood in front of Donnie in an attempt to give him a little more time to recover from his panic attack.

"The mission has _changed_." Karai informed him sternly and Slash immediately rounded on her in anger.

" _NOTHING_ has changed." He roared back.

"Something has just come to my attention." She proclaimed, clearly indicating the phenomenon that had just transpired between her, Zero and Donnie as she walked up to glare him down. "I believe we may have been _misled_ – I want to find the _truth_ before we continue."

This suddenly seemed to cause Slash to relax in such a _strange_ way that the turtles were honestly shocked by the unexpected reaction. "The truth of _what_?" He asked simply causing her to look at the brothers before she spoke up again.

"I don't believe they are our enemies." She finally admitted, noticing how Leo quickly stood a little straighter as if hoping that it wasn't a trick.

But what she didn't catch was how Mikey quietly laid his hand on Leo's back to tap a finger against the bone of his brother's shell, which silently informed his leader of what he had discovered.

Like Donnie; Mikey had been trained to recognize the language of the body as well as the _face_ and even though Karai was admittedly very good at disguising her features, he could still tell that she was _lying_.

However, what was _weird_ was that he also noticed that Slash had _no idea_ what she was talking about.

"Is that so?" The larger turtle suddenly asked as Karai continued with her _ruse_ in an attempt to get the brothers to drop their guard, clearly not seeing what was coming next.

"Karai!" Leo called in warning but it was already too late, for Slash had lifted his weapon in a fraction of a second and hit her so hard that they actually heard her bones shatter as she roiled along the rooftop to nearly fall off the side before Zero appeared out of thin air to catch her.

Immediately the sent of blood filled the air and Zero began to panic as he watched it pool around her body where she struggled to breathe.

"Slash – what are you –" She tried to ask, but he interrupted as he calmly beat the ball of his weapon into his hand and walked toward them causally.

"Sorry sister, _master's_ orders." Slash proclaimed with a pleased little grin. "Though I'd be lying if I said I haven't been _waiting_ for this." He added cruelly as he raised his weapon again, but that was as close as Leo's team was willing to let him get.

They looked out for their own, even if that meant protecting an _enemy_.

Leo and Raph were on the larger turtle in seconds, using an expert combination of Raph's strength with Leo's speed and longer ranged weapon to force him back as Donnie rounded the fight to get to the injured mutant.

"It's okay, it's okay." He informed Karai quietly as he applied pressure to the wound, leaving Mikey to search his bag for the bio-foam Donnie had created a few years ago which was able to immediately clog Karai's wound and stop most of the bleeding.

However, a sudden roar from Slash had them both looking back to find their brothers were starting to lose ground on the monster. "Go, I got this." Donnie told his younger sibling and Mikey nodded before rushing into the fight as well.

"Zero?" Donnie spoke up again getting the other ninja's attention, but he seemed too shocked to respond to him " _Tokka_!" He tried again finally causing the other turtle to face him. "We need to get her someplace _safe_." He added sternly hoping that the communication-challenged turtle could understand him.

Though Donnie was well aware that more _time_ was passing in the next moment than he was privy to, it had only taken a blink of his eye for both Zero and Karai to completely disappear. However, the weirdness wasn't over just yet as he looked up and suddenly found himself struck with a serious case of _déjà vu._

Realizing immediately that he had _seen_ this particular image of the skyline before he quickly turned around to find what he could only describe as a _rip_ in the fabric of time, where he discovered his _younger-self_ from no less than 5 minutes earlier staring back at him in shock, causing him to instantly remember that he had a _message_ to deliver.

" _Protect_ him!" He yelled as he got to his feet and ran up to the rift as it started to fade. "Protect _Zero_." He added just before the hole faded and he found himself momentarily hoping that the grandfather paradox was true and that no matter what he did or said to his past-self the timeline would _continue_ as it always has and always will.

"NO!" Slash suddenly bellowed as the window disappeared and Donnie once again found himself face to face with the beast as he stormed toward him in anger of his pray getting away yet again.

But Leo wasn't having any of it

"Guys." Their leader stated dangerously as he realized that Karai and Zero were finally safe and that his _entire_ team was at his side.

"Take him down."

…

( _Donnie's POV_ )

"What the hell?" August suddenly proclaimed when we all materialized in the middle of his living room with a little help from our _prisoner's_ transportation device.

"Oh man." Mikey complained as he held his stomach. "That's not _fun_." He added before quickly re-securing his hold on the mass of spikes and anger management issues that he happened to be sitting on.

"August!" Leo got the man's attention quickly as I realized that our friend had probably just arrived back at his apartment after the all but forgotten issue involving Irma and the two boys.

'How on earth had we managed to get so _sidetracked_?'

"Do you have a place where we can – _store_ our new _friend_ here?" Leo added causing Slash to thrash around again in an attempt to break free of his binds, but we'd short-sheeted Raph enough times to know how to use someone's strength _against_ them.

It didn't matter how hard he tried, he _wasn't_ getting out.

August was obviously a little shocked to discover what we had accomplished in such a short amount of time but got over it quickly as he answered my brother's question.

"Yeah, I know just the place."

…

'Just the place' turned out to be an abandoned _insane asylum_ from back in the day when humans had needed a place to keep the first mutants, which had usually been unstable and dangerous.

I would have been lying had I not admitted that it was amusingly _satisfying_ watching Slash fuss around inside a padded room designed with reinforced walls that could actually _contain_ his ridicules strength.

"Don't open the door." Leo ordered as he joined us again while simultaneously returning the little black phone to his pocket. "Bishop will be here to pick him up soon. Hopefully we can find a way to _help_ him." He added in August's direction.

"And if we _can't_?" The man requested calmly.

"We'll cross that bridge if we come to it." Leo answered solemnly. Admittedly we were all a little uncomfortable treating a fellow turtle like a _monster_ , and as such we would love to hear that Slash was just being controlled or influenced by Shredder. But it was hard to shake the fact that we certainly had our _doubts_.

August nodded in agreement before wisely changing the subject. "What about April and Casey?" He stated clearly struggling to contain his worry. "Did you get any useful information from Irma?" He added looking toward me and Zira as he asked this.

"I did, but –" I started to answer as I looked to Zira who was obviously still in no mood to talk about what we had experienced. "I had to lock it away." I added quietly.

"What does that mean?" He asked me kindly, causing Leo to step up and answer in my place.

"He means it's not _safe_." My brother commented sternly. "The defenses Shedder put in place nearly _killed_ them. Splinter's probably the only one who can find a way around them _unharmed_."

"So – that means –" August started again before being interrupted.

"We _can't_ use it." Raph added as he folded his arms in a huff. "It was a _waste_ _a time_."

"Not exactly." Leo countered calmly causing everyone to look at him again. "I think I know of _someone_ who can help us."

Raph immediately opened his mouth to demand that he continue with that vague comment when I interrupted.

"Karai?" I added simply causing my red-clad brother to round on me like I'd just sworn my allegiance to the Devil himself.

"Ya gotta be _kiddin'_ me!" He complained loudly. "That woman's been trying ta _kill_ us for the last two days and now ya want ta join forces?"

"Man you just don't like _anybody_ ,do ya?" Zira countered smartly and he quickly turned to glare at her before looking back to Leo.

"You can't be serious?" He demanded sternly and Leo sighed before answering.

"She's _worked_ for Shredder and she was just _betrayed_ by him." He started truthfully. "She had it all wrong and she _knows_ it. Now we just have to show her the _truth_."

"Okay." Raph grunted as he raised his hands to stop the conversion. "Is there a _station_ comin' up where I can _board_ this train a thought? _WHEN_ did we start helping the enemy?"

"She's hurt." I added simply and he promptly looked back at me as if to refute that but when our eyes met he decided against it and sighed. As much as he may have wished to deny it at the moment we were both _doctors_ and as such our first priority was to insure that everyone _lived_ , we could hate them for the rest of our lives _later_.

"Alright." He agreed reluctantly as he turned back to Leo again. "So _where_ do we find her?"

…

( _3_ _rd_ _:_ )

A few minutes later the group was split into its usual teams of two, with Zira joining Donnie and Raph once more as they searched the city for any sign of Karai or Zero.

In between trying to _track_ someone in a concrete jungle and running into guards that were pretty adamant to know just _how_ not one but _three_ of Shredder's henchmen had breached the borders of New Manhattan undetected, Zira managed to find the time to bring up a concern.

"Hey." She whispered toward Raph as they managed to avoid another squad of border guards that were getting more and more insistent about knowing the _whereabouts_ of their enemy.

"What?" He asked calmly as she reached out to stop him from walking away and he turned to face her in a halfhearted attempt to actually listen.

"I'm not going to pretend that I know Donnie better than you." She started seriously. "But even _I_ can see something's _changed_."

"Yeah." He agreed as he looked toward his brother who was searching an area on another rooftop, though he was clearly not putting a lot of brain power into the action. "I've never seen him like this." He added solemnly as he took in the almost _sad_ sag in his brother's shoulders, like the other turtle had given up hope of ever being happy again. "I don't know what ta do." Raph finally admitted as he looked back to her.

Zira seemed to understand immediately that this was his way of asking for help, so in the interest of calming the waters between them (if just a little,) she offered what she could. "Just – talk to him." She stated simply. "You'll figure it out."

He gave her a little scoff in return as he looked back at his brother before taking a deep breath and walked over to interrupt the absentminded search.

"Don?" Raph muttered in an attempt to get his attention which only caused his brother to turn away as if to hide something, but the red-clad turtle wasn't having any of that. "Hey!" He promptly ordered and reached out to grab his shoulder in order to turn him back around but still Donnie refused to look at him as he pointed his attention at the ground this time.

"Talk ta me!" Raph added in concern as he strengthened the grip, partly in concern that if he didn't hold on Donnie would just fade away into whatever thoughts plagued him.

"'Bout what?" His brother asked in a quiet voice which immediately told Raphael that something _serious_ was up. Donnie wasn't the type to use improper English unless he was severely distracted.

"What did he do?" Raph demanded as he reached out to grab Donnie's other shoulder forcing his brother to face him completely. "What did you _see_?" He added sternly.

It didn't take a genius to put the pieces together and realize that he'd been dwindling further and further in this sudden depression since he'd nearly collapsed after Zero had shown him something on the roof.

"Come on, Donnie." Raph insisted gently when his brother shook his head, obviously having a hard time voicing what was on his mind.

"It _can't_ be." He finally said in a whisper so quiet that Raph barely caught the words. "It's _impossible_." He added as he continued to shake his head and suddenly Raph was extremely afraid.

He had _never_ heard Donnie use that word.

"What?" Raph requested attempting to hold in the fear that was now bubbling up, not for himself but his brother.

" _Zero_." Donnie finally admitted as he looked up to meet Raph's eyes. "I know who he is." He added showing his sibling the _desperate_ gaze of someone who was _begging_ his older brother to help him make sense of this.

"He's my _brother_ , Raph. The one I _lost_."

The End

* * *

Well okay then; looks like we'll finish the mission in Part 8… maybe…

I still can't figure out how I managed to get them so _distracted_.

But I guess it wouldn't be the Ninja Turtles if they didn't become a _little_ sidetracked.

LoL

Well time to watch for Part 8

"The Peaks We Climb"


End file.
